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The film-forming ability and conductivity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) are still unsatisfying, despite much progress having been made in g-C3N4-related photocatalysts. New methods for synthesizing g-C3N4 films coupled with excellent conductive materials are of significance. Herein, a facile method for synthesizing novel carbonized polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/g-C3N4 (CPVP/g-C3N4) films have been developed through an electrospinning technique. Nanocarbons are generated by in situ carbonization of PVP in the films, which could enhance the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of the films due to its good conductivity. The coverage of the CPVP/g-C3N4 film is good and the films exhibit excellent PEC performance. Furthermore, the thickness of the films can be adjusted by varying the electrospinning time and substantially controlling the PEC performance, of which the photocurrent densities under visible-light irradiation are 3.55, 4.92, and 6.64 μA cm−2 with spinning times of 40, 70, and 120 min, respectively. The photocurrent does not decrease until testing at 4000 s and the coverage is still good after the tests, which indicates the good stability of the films. The excellent PEC performance of the films and facile preparation method enables promising applications in energy and environmental remediation areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of biopolymers such as protein and polysaccharides is becoming increasingly popular due to their remarkable gelling property under certain conditions. In this work, the effects of gelation together with phase separation in the restricted geometries were studied in detail for whey protein isolate ( WPI) and polysaccharide mixtures. The results showed that phase separation of the constituents was highly dependent on the concentration of the constituent in the mixture. The results clearly demonstrated that the properties of the system would be different if the size of the final morphological structure of droplet is reduced. The effect of kinetics on the phase separation was also investigated in this study. It was concluded that the microstructure of droplet exhibited different amounts of phase separation before settling where the whole WPI was observed to form the shell, while the polysaccharide was observed to form the core of microstructure. Practical Applications This study provides practical and theoretical information regarding the monodisperse particles of a phase separating and gelling biopolymer mixture of whey protein isolate, gellan gum and locust bean gum which have importance in controlling the kinetics of phase separation to impart stability and desired textural properties to a food product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]