Tetraethylorthosilicate induced preparation of mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride with improved visible light photocatalytic activity

•Mesoporous g-C3N4 was prepared by the in situ formed silica from TEOS as template.•The visible photocatalytic activity of mg-C3N4 was greatly enhanced.•mg-C3N4 possessed effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes.•mg-C3N4 still possessed good stability after three recycles.

Mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mg-C3N4) has been prepared by the in situ formed silica from tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as a mesoporous template. The resultant mg-C3N4 possessed a large surface area (152 m2 g− 1), and enhanced photodegradation performance for Rhodamine B pollutant when energized with visible light. Moreover, mg-C3N4 also exhibited good stability after three recycles. The significant enhancement in photodegradation activity over mg-C3N4 catalyst could be ascribed to the large surface area, high adsorption ability to dye and enhanced separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The simple strategy for the fabrication of mg-C3N4 may facilitate its wide applications in various fields.