Dual-Mechanism Study of Metal-Free g-C3N4 Catalysts for Advanced Oxidation Under Non-Photocatalytic Conditions
Metal-free materials have been proved to be promising replacements of traditional metal-based catalysts for advanced oxidation reactions. Carbon nitride was found to be able to activate H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> and generate hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Nevertheless, the performance of carbon nitride is highly dependent on an external light source. In this work, we report a light-independent, metal-free catalyst based on g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> prepared using a facile calcination method. It is revealed that two reaction pathways, a radical (•OH) one and a nonradical (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>) one, coexist in organics oxidation on g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>. The dominant reaction pathway is dependent on the condensation temperature of UCN. In addition, this g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> exhibited excellent stability after being recycled and reused for five cycles. The findings in this work can be used for the design of efficient and robust metal-free catalysts with both superior catalytic performance and high stability for various heterogeneous catalytic processes.
Authors
- Yang Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7049-3179)
- Zixu Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3213-0235)
- Jing Ming Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2998-3878)
- Pengfei Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0261-8536)
- Xiaohan Yuan
- Weizhi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1567-2371)
Institutions
- East China University of Science and Technology (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Molecules
- Published
- 2025-01-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30020247
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.45
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- Shanghai Rising-Star Program