Preparation of Copper Nanoparticle-Loaded Graphitic Carbon Nitride and Photocatalytic Reduction of Uranium

In this work, molten salt method was used to prepare highly dispersed graphitic carbon nitride(WSGCN), and chemical reduction method was used to load Cu nanoparticles on WSGCN to prepare Cu-WSGCN composites. FTIR, XRD, XPS, TEM, SEM, ICP-AES, UV-vis DRS, PL spectroscopy, ESR and EIS characterization methods were carried out to investigate the structure and photoelectric properties of the photocatalyst. The results show that compared with WSGCN, Cu-WSGCN has a larger light absorption range and a narrower band gap. In addition, the presence of Schottky barriers at the interface between Cu nanoparticles and WSGCN promotes charge transfer and separation of photogenerated carriers, which improves the photocatalytic ability. The uranium removal rate of Cu-WSGCN composite is relatively high(81.07 %) when the load of Cu nanoparticles is 1%. After three cycles of photocatalytic uranium reduction experiments, the uranium removal rate by 1%Cu-WSGCN can still reach 75.96%, which provides a useful reference for the development of novel materials with high efficiency photocatalytic removal of uranium.