Carbon Nitride Supramolecular Hybrid Material Enabled High-Efficiency Photocatalytic Water Treatments

Surface defects in relation to surface compositions, morphology, and active sites play crucial roles in photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) material for highly reactive oxygen radicals production. Here, we report a high-efficiency carbon nitride supramolecular hybrid material prepared by patching the surface defects with inorganic clusters. Fe (III) {PO4[WO(O2)2]4} clusters have been noncovalently integrated on surface of g-C3N4, where the surface defects provide accommodation sites for these clusters and driving forces for self-assembly. During photocatalytic process, the activity of supramolecular hybrid is 1.53 times than pure g-C3N4 for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and 2.26 times for Methyl Orange (MO) under the simulated solar light. Under the mediation of H2O2 (50 mmol L–1), the activity increases to 6.52 times for RhB and 28.3 times for MO. The solid cluster active sites with high specific surface area (SSA) defect surface promoting the kinetics of hydroxide radical...