Urea And Green Tea Like Precursors For The Preparation Of g-C3N4 Based Carbon Nanomaterials (CNMs) Composite: Used As Photocatalyst For Photodegradation of Pollutants Under UV-Light Irradiation

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has proven to be a benchmark metal-free catalyst because of its photocatalytic applications for hydrogen generation and pollutants remediation. However, its photogenarated charge carriers (electron and hole pairs) exhibit a fast recombination and insufficient light absorption during photocatalytic process. Making g-C3N4-based nanocomposite is one way to overcome its drawbacks. Therefore, this review focuses on a novel route by which we can now insert materials like carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) in the structure of g-C3N4 to form hybrids nanocomposites which possess great surface area and high photocatalytic properties. Then, a novel kind of nanosheets g-C3N4/CNT composites with high UV-light photoactivity were developed via one-pot preparation using urea and green tea leaves wastes as precursors (starting materials) and as a cheap and natural sources of carbon and nitrogen. As results, we finally obtained CNTs nanoparticleshybridized g-C3N4 and denoted as g-C3N4/CNTBGt which possess a great surface area (128,26 m2.g-1) with more mesoporous active sites leading to a strong adsorption capability and efficient photocatalytic activity for Methylene Blue photodegradation related to its low recombination of photogenerated charge carriers as it was predicted by PL analysis. The subscript B stands for Biochar and subscript Gt stands for green tea. According to the characterization analysis results we believed that green tea leaves acted as a template agent that controls the morphology, the growing and the final structure leading to the in situ incorporation of CNTs in the structure of g-C3N4. g-C3N4/CNTBGt exhibited a perfect Reusability and its stability was also improved as compared to g-C3N4. This study provides new insights for the preparation of g-C3N4-based carbon nanomaterials and facilitates their potential application in the synergistic removal of harmful organic pollutants.