Boron doped g-C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic UO22+ reduction performance

Tuning the band gap and absorption intensity of visible-light by element doping is an attractive strategy to enhance the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor materials. Here we doped boron into g-C3N4 to construct highly efficient photocatalysts (B-g-C3N4) for the photocatalytic reduction of UO22+. Characterization and photocatalysis tests showed the band gap of B-g-C3N4 was narrowed, and the absorption intensity of visible-light was enhanced with increasing the formed N-B-C (BCN) of B-g-C3N4, which is consistent with the trend of the photocatalytic performance of B-g-C3N4. The optimized B-g-C3N4 photocatalyst with BCN content of 1.01 at.% exhibited excellent removal efficiency of UO22+ and good photocatalytic stability. Therefore, these results may lead to a new strategy for exploring the advanced photocatalysts based on the carbon nanomaterials with abundant BCN for the photocatalytic reduction of U(VI) pollutant.