Bioinspired Construction of g-C3N4 Nanolayers on a Carbonized Polydopamine Nanosphere Surface with Excellent Photocatalytic Performance

Graphite-like carbon nitride (CN) has attracted much attention because of its distinct optical and photoelectrical properties, strong stability, and wide applications for environmental restoration and renewable energy. Herein, the CN nanolayer about 7.5–17.5 nm in thickness was in situ built uniformly on the external of carbonized PDA (cPDA) spheres to form the cPDA@CN core/shell nanomaterials on account of the bioinspired adhesion. They possess the mesopore about 4.8 nm in diameter and a high specific surface area (66.6 m2 g–1). The optimal cPDA@CN sample exhibits efficient catalytic activities for the rhodamine B degradation (2.19 h–1) and H2 release rate (630 μmol g–1 h–1), which are ∼15.4 and ∼10 times of pristine CN, respectively. This research affords a dextrous and scalable way to fabricate the nanostructured photocatalyst with superior performance, which may hold great promise in practical applications.