Novel Photocatalytic Nanocomposite Made of Polymeric Carbon Nitride and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Semiconducting polymers are promising materials for photocatalysis, batteries, fuel applications, etc. One of the most useful photocatalysts is polymeric carbon nitride (PCN), which is usually produced during melamine condensation. In this work, a novel method of obtaining a PCN nanocomposite, in which PCN forms an amorphous layer coating on oxide nanoparticles, is presented. Microwave hydrothermal synthesis (MHS) was used to synthesize a homogeneous mixture of nanoparticles consisting of 80 wt.% AlOOH and 20 wt.% of ZrO₂. The nanopowders were mechanically milled with melamine, and the mixture was annealed in the temperature range of 400⁻600 °C with rapid heating and cooling. The above procedure lowers PCN formation to 400 °C. The following nanocomposite properties were investigated: band gap, specific surface area, particle size, morphology, phase composition, chemical composition, and photocatalytic activity. The specific surface of the PCN nanocomposite was as high as 70 m²/g, and the optical band gap was 3 eV. High photocatalytic activity in phenol degradation was observed. The proposed simple method, as well as the low-cost preparation procedure, permits the exploitation of PCN as a polymer semiconductor photocatalytic material.