Efficient Organic Dyes Photodegradation Catalyzed by Nickel-Species Loaded Graphitic Carbon Nitride.

In this paper, a series of nickel-species loaded graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) nanohybrid photocatalysts were successfully fabricated via a simple thermal treatment process and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, SEM, TEM, UV-vis DRS and PL technologies. Photocatalytic tests displayed that the nanohybrids possessed remarkable photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) degradation compared with pure g-CN and P25 TiO under visible-light irradiation. Moreover, the activity can be further enhanced by adjusting the pyrolysis temperature and the amount of nickel salt. The maximal photocatalytic efficiency was achieved over the sample that pyrolysed at 650 °C with Ni content of 5% (in precursor), in which 92.1% of MB was degraded under visible light within 2 h. The present work could provide considerable reference value for the study of non-noble metal modified g-CN and pollutant degredation catalysts. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]