Abstract
A novel mesoporous g-C3N4 with guanidine hydrochloride as precursor was prepared by molten salt assisted hard template of silica (SiO2) aerogel for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (TC). The textural structure, chemical composition, morphology and optical properties of mesoporous g-C3N4 were characterized by a series of means, and the synergistic effect of adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of TC was elucidated. The results show that the successfully synthesized mesoporous g-C3N4 presented a coral-like rod shaped and heptazine ring structure. When the amount of SiO2 aerogel template was 1.4 g, the richer nitrogen defects of the sample (GM-1.4) with the lower band gap (2.42 eV) was displayed.The photocatalytic degradation rate of GM-1.4 for TC was reached to 83.4% under visible illumination for 120 min. Furthermore, the •O2- and h+ were proved to be the main active species, and the reasons of TC photodegradation were associated with the destruction of TC molecular structure.