Tailoring the mesoporous texture of graphitic carbon nitride.
Recently, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) materials have received a great attention from many researchers due to their various roles as a visible light harvesting photocatalyst, metal-free catalyst, reactive template, nitrogen source of nitridation reaction, etc. g-C3N4 could be prepared by temperature-induced polymerization of cyanamide or melamine. In this study, we report a preparation of mesoporous graphitic carbon nitrides with tailored porous texture including pore size, and specific surface area from cyanamide and colloidal silica nanoparticles (Ludox). At first, cyanamide-silica nanocomposites were prepared by mixing colloidal silica with different size in the range of 7-22 nm and cyanamide, followed by evaporating the solvent in the resulting mixture. Mesoporous g-C3N4 samples were prepared by calcining cyanamide-silica nanocomposite at 550 degrees C for 4 hrs and removing the silica nanoparticles by using ammonium hydrogen fluoride. The formation of g-C3N4 was confirmed by the sharp (002) peak (d = 3.25 A) of graphitic interlayer stacking, and the broad (100) peak (d = 6.86 A) of in-plane repeating unit in the X-ray diffraction patterns. According to N2 adsorption-desorption analysis, the pore size of mesoporous carbon nitrides was similar to the size of colloidal silica used as hard template (7-22 nm). The specific surface area of mesoporous g-C3N4 could be tailored in the range of 189 m2/g-288 m2/g.
Center for Intelligent Nano-Bio Materials (CINBM), Department of Bioinspired Science and Department of Chemistry and Nano Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 120-750, Korea.
Jae-Hun
JH
Yang
Gain
G
Kim
Kazunari
K
Domen
Jin-Ho
JH
Choy
D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009570:Nitriles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D016062:Porosity; D013499:Surface Properties
D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009570:Nitriles; C011206:cyanogen; D006108:Graphite