A Mesoporous Rod-like g-C3N5 Synthesized by Salt-Guided Strategy: As a Superior Photocatalyst for Degradation of Organic Pollutant

Three-dimensional graphite carbon nitride (3D-CN) has received tremendous research interest due to its unique structural features, fascinating physicochemical properties, and widespread potential applications. Most syntheses of 3D-CN mainly focus on developing g-C3N4 (2.7 eV) using soft-templating and hard-templating strategies. Nevertheless, the excellent photocatalytic activity of 3D-CN is related to its small band gap, which is relevant to its structure and the nitrogen (N) content. Meanwhile, it is still a challenge to prepare N-rich CN with special structure and a small band gap using a simple and green strategy. Herein, a novel, mesoporous rod-like and N-rich graphite carbon nitride (RN-g-C3N5) is fabricated by a facile and green KBr-guided approach using 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole. The KBr acting as a guider can be easily removed by water. Surprisingly, the mesoporous rod-like structure makes for the usage of visible light and the enhancement of surface area of RN-g-C3N5. More importantly, the special structure and high N content result in a narrow band gap (1.90 eV). Therefore, RN-g-C3N5 displays notably superior photocatalytic performance. Meanwhile, the RN-g-C3N5 with excellent photocatalytic performance has great prospects in environmental remediation.