Facile synthesis of phosphorus doped graphitic carbon nitride polymers with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

•P-doped g-C3N4 has been prepared by a one-pot green synthetic approach.•The incorporation of P resulted in favorable textural and electronic properties.•Doping with P enhanced the visible-light photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4.•A postannealing treatment further enhanced the activity of P-doped g-C3N4.•Photogenerated holes were the main species responsible for the activity.

Phosphorus-doped carbon nitride materials were prepared by a one-pot green synthetic approach using dicyandiamide monomer and a phosphorus containing ionic liquid as precursors. The as-prepared materials were subjected to several characterizations and investigated as metal-free photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants (dyes like Rhodamine B, Methyl orange) in aqueous solution under visible light. Results revealed that phosphorus-doped carbon nitride have a higher photocatalytic activity for decomposing Rhodamine B and Methyl orange in aqueous solution than undoped g-C3N4, which was attributed to the favorable textural, optical and electronic properties caused by doping with phosphorus heteroatoms into carbon nitride host. A facile postannealing treatment further improved the activity of the photocatalytic system, due to the higher surface area and smaller structural size in the postcalcined catalysts. The phosphorus-doped carbon nitride showed high visible-light photocatalytic activity, making them promising materials for a wide range of potential applications in photochemistry.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide