Synthesis and characterization of graphitic carbon nitride sub-microspheres using microwave method under mild condition

Abstract Graphitic carbon nitride(g-C 3 N 4 ) sub-microspheres was first prepared via a facile microwave synthesis through polymerization reaction between cyanuric chloride(C 3 N 3 Cl 3 ) and sodium azide (NaN 3 ) using acetonitrile (ACN) as solvent, and the prepared samples were investigated by XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, TEM, UV–Vis, PL, TGA and BET, respectively. The results show that g-C 3 N 4 are insoluble to conventional solvents except DMSO, and it exhibits a good chemical stability, thermal stability( 2 /g and a band gap of 2.41 eV. Additionally, g-C 3 N 4 prepared by microwave method also displays higher thermal stability, smaller particle radius, larger surface area, lower band gap and stronger emission intensity than traditional solvothermal method. Finally, the effect of microwave on the behavior of C 3 N 4 sub-microsphere is proposed as well.