Fabrication of corncob-derived biomass charcoal decorated g-C3N4 photocatalysts for removing 2-mercaptobenzothiazole

Abstract

Insights into active sites and charge transport behavior are challenging topics for fabricating composite photocatalysts and investigating their photocatalytic degradation reaction mechanisms. Herein, novel composites comprising biomass charcoal and graphitic carbon nitride (CN) were fabricated via facial alkali catalysis and thermal condensation of corncob and melamine precursors. By fine-tuning the calcination temperature, the carbonization temperature of corncob-derived biomass charcoal was controlled, which had a great influence on the optimal photocatalytic activity of C–CN-600, which was 90% of the degradation activity of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), and about 2-fold higher than that of pure CN. The corncob not only acts as a precursor for biomass charcoal, but can also prevent the agglomeration of CN at high temperature. Moreover, the charge carrier lifetime, visible light absorption and surface area are also revealed in detail by systematic characterization. In addition, the intermediate products of MBT, the degradation reaction pathway, and the mechanism over C–CN are revealed in depth.