Synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride by reaction of melamine and uric acid

Graphitic carbon nitrides were synthesized starting from melamine and uric acid. Uric acid was chosen because it thermally decomposes, and reacts with melamine by condensation at temperatures in the range of 400–600 °C. The reagents were mixed with alumina and subsequently the samples were treated in an oven under nitrogen flux. Alumina favored the deposition of the graphitic carbon nitrides layers on the exposed surface. This method can be assimilated to an in situ chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Infrared (IR) spectra, as well as X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, are in accordance with the formation of a graphitic carbon nitride with a structure based on heptazine blocks. These carbon nitrides exhibit poor crystallinity and a nanometric texture, as shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The thermal degradation of the graphitic carbon nitride occurs through cyano group formation, and involves the bridging tertiary nitrogen and the bonded carbon, which belongs to the heptazine ring, causing the ring opening and the consequent network destruction as inferred by connecting the IR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results. This seems to be an easy and promising route to synthesize graphitic carbon nitrides. Our final material is a composite made of an alumina core covered by carbon nitride layers.

► Graphitic carbon nitrides by CVD of melamine and uric acid on alumina.
► The building blocks of carbon nitrides are heptazine nuclei.
► Composite particles with alumina core and carbon nitride coating.