Bio-inspired Honeycomb-like Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic CO Reduction Activity

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) is paying attention lately owing to its interesting characteristics and substantial application in improving environmental and energy concerns. Nevertheless, the photocatalytic activity of g-CN is constrained by the inertness of the surface and particle aggregation during photocatalytic activity. Herein, we report the preparation of g-CN with honeycomb-like morphology (HC-CN) via thermal condensation of prepared SiO templates and dicyandiamide. The etching out of the SiO templates by NHHF created hollow or macropores in the CN matrix resulting in its structural changes. Similar, to the bulk CN, the HC-CN exhibited higher photocatalytic CO reduction in hydrocarbons. This improved photocatalytic achievement is associated with higher specific surface area, excellent visible light absorption capability, higher electron donor density, easy mass diffusion of materials for surface reaction, and effective segregation of photogenerated charge carriers. Furthermore, the HC-CN honeycomb structure was deposited with Ni(OH) clusters which showed remarkable CO reduction activity of 1.48 μmolh g of CH and 0.73 μmolh g of CHOH generation which is 3.5 and 4.3 times higher CO reduction activity compared with bulk CN clustered with Ni(OH) particles. This comprehensive study demonstrated that HC-CN nanostructured polymeric semiconductor is envisaged to have great potential in the application of a variety of fields such as photocatalysis, sensor technology, and nanotechnology.