Eco-friendly one-pot synthesis of well-adorned mesoporous g-C3N4 with efficiently enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

We report a facile and eco-friendly one-pot synthesis of well-adorned mesoporous g-C3N4 material through a bubble templating strategy and involving controlling the surface area from 17 to 195 m2 g−1 by simply adjusting the mass ratio of melamine/NH4Cl. Various characterization techniques were adopted to examine the structures and physicochemical properties of the as-prepared mpg-C3N4 samples. The results are a step forward to the bottleneck problems of producing mesoporous g-C3N4 materials with both a high BET surface area with well-adorned pore diameters and considerable pore volume by simply employing ammonium chloride as a gaseous bubble template and melamine as a g-C3N4 precursor. The obtained ammonium chloride-mediated mesoporous g-C3N4 photocatalyst demonstrated excellent photocatalytic performance compared with bulk g-C3N4 for the visible light photodegradation of RhB and phenol. The extraordinary photocatalytic activity and outstanding stability of the as-prepared mesoporous g-C3N4 were predominantly attributed to the exceptionally high surface area with ordered pore diameters, improved optical absorbance, and efficient charge separation. Our work not only exhibits the simplest, eco-friendly, and economical approach to fabricate highly efficient well-adorned mesoporous g-C3N4 photocatalysts, but also paves new opportunities for the rational design and synthesis of advanced photocatalysts with great potential in environmental remediation.