Bacteria-motivated pore structure regulation of graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced H2 evaluation under visible light irradiation

Abstract Porous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) was successfully synthesized by a simple bacterial etching method. Compared with bulk g-C 3 N 4 , the specific surface area of the porous g-C 3 N 4 increased from 14.48 to 75.22 m 2 /g, and its photocatalytic activity was significantly enhanced by a factor of 2.49 for photocatalytic H 2 evolution. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity is attributed to the enlarged specific surface area, remarkably narrowed band gap (2.28 eV) and fast electron transportation benefit from the porous structure.