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-C3N4 to solve this problem a simple and safe in-situ reduction method. g-C3N4/CaCO3 was obtained by a simple and safe one-step calcination method with industrial-grade micron particles CaCO3. Cyano group modification was in-situ reduced during the thermal polymerization process, which would change the internal electronic structure of g-C3N4. The successful combination of g-C3N4 and CaCO3 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 •O2- and 1O2 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.