The 2D Porous g-C₃N₄/CdS Heterostructural Nanocomposites with Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Activity

In this study, the 2D porous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets were successfully fabricated via a facile thermal decomposition polymerization method without any help of templates, and then novel porous g-C3N4/CdS complex catalysts of different mass fractions were is situ synthesized by a simple solvothermal process. The results of photocatalytic experiments demonstrate that the coupling g-C3N4/CdS cocatalysts exhibit significant enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for the decolorization of methyl orange (MO) compared with individual porous g-C3N4 and CdS. In particular, an optimal porous g-C3N4 content in the hybridized composite has been determined to be 70 wt.%, corresponding to pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.046 min(-1), which is 7 and 11 times faster than that of pure porous g-C3N4 and CdS, respectively. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy measurements clearly confirmed that the recombination of photoproduced electrons and holes in g-C3N4/CdS composites was efficiently inhibited due to the formation of heterojunctions. Furthermore, the possible mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activity and photostability of prous g-C3N4/CdS are also tentatively proposed.