Gaseous bubble-assisted in-situ construction of worm-like porous g-C₃N₄ with superior visible light photocatalytic performance

Metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) displays benign photocatalytic properties for contaminants photodegradation under visible photoirradiation. Devising a simple modification strategy for the improved photocatalytic activity of g-C₃N₄ has always been desired. Herein, we report a spherical worm-like g-C₃N₄ nanostructure via facile ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS) gaseous bubbles templating approach. This strategy employing ALS as gaseous bubbles templating agent bestowed not only g-C₃N₄ with improved specific surface areas, a porous structure with more exposed photocatalytic reactive sites and mass diffusion of reactants molecules, but also rendered extended optical absorption range and suppression of the photoinduced charge carriers recombination. As a result, the ALS-mediated g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts unfolded excellent photocatalytic performance regarding photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and phenol under visible photoirradiation. Additionally, the quenching effects of various scavengers proved that the holes (h⁺) and superoxide anions (^[rad]O₂⁻) radicals were the main active species responsible for ameliorated photocatalytic performance for rhodamine B and phenol photodegradation. Our work offers a straightforward approach for developing high-performance metal free photocatalysts with great potential for environmental remediation.