Facile preparation of CuO/g-C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of salicylic acid

CuO particles supported on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheeets were prepared using a novel one-pot method. In the presence of ammonium nitrate, different mass ratios of copper nitrate/melamine were used to fabricate these catalysts, which were characterized using XRD, N-2-physisorption, FT-IR, TEM, XPS and UV-vis analysis. The catalytic performance of CuO/g-C3N4 was evaluated by photodegrading salicylic acid under visible light irradiation. Among these novel catalysts, CuO(1.0)/g-C3N4 was found to exhibit the highest catalytic activity, which was more than 100% greater than the parent g-C3N4 material. The improved photocatalytic properties of CuO/g-C3N4 may be ascribed to the formation of p-n heterojunctions between CuO and g-C3N4, resulting in the effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and the enhanced absorption of visible light. Furthermore, the CuO/g-C3N4 composites had excellent stability and reused for five times without obvious loss of activity.