In-situ-reduced synthesis of cyano group modified g-C3N4/CaCO3 composite with highly enhanced photocatalytic activity for nicotine elimination

Graphite carbon nitride has many excellent properties as a two-dimensional semiconductor material so that it has a wide application prospect in the field of photocatalysis . However, the traditional problems such as high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers limit its application. In this work, we introduce nitrogen deficiency into g-C 3 N 4 to solve this problem a simple and safe in-situ reduction method. g-C 3 N 4 /CaCO 3 was obtained by a simple and safe one-step calcination method with industrial-grade micron particles CaCO 3 . Cyano group modification was in-situ reduced during the thermal polymerization process, which would change the internal electronic structure of g-C 3 N 4 . The successful combination of g-C 3 N 4 and CaCO 3 and the introduction of cyanide have been proved by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer. The formation of the cyano group, an electron-absorbing group, promotes the effective separation of photogenic electron hole pairs and inhibits the recombination of photogenic carriers. These advantages result in the generation of more •O 2 − and 1 O 2 in the catalytic system, which increases the photocatalytic efficiency of nicotine degradation by ten times. Furthermore, the degradation process of nicotine has been studied in this work to provide a basis for the degradation of nicotine organic pollutants in the air.