Nitrogen vacancy engineered graphitic C₃N₄-based polymers for photocatalytic oxidation of aromatic alcohols to aldehydes

Vacancy defect in the semiconductors plays an important role in the improvement of the electronic structure and the increase of specific reaction sites for reactant molecules, and consequently enhancing the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor photocatalysts. Through high-temperature thermal condensation of a nitric acid-pretreated melamine precursor, nitrogen vacancies were successfully introduced in the framework of g-C₃N₄. The nitrogen vacancies located at the uncondensed terminal NH_x lattice sites were conducive to the enhancement of optical absorption, the improvement of the separation efficiency of the photogenerated charge carrier and the increase of surface area, which was beneficial to the photocatalytic oxidation process. More significantly, the novel CNNA(X) were used as efficient photocatalysts in the green process of aromatic aldehydes from the photocatalytic selective oxidation of aromatic alcohols and the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. CNNA(X) samples exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity and excellent recyclability and stability. The 68.3% benzyl alcohol conversion and almost 100% selectivity was observed for the CNNA (0.9) photocatalyst, higher than that of pure g-C₃N₄. Meanwhile, CNNA (0.9) showed superior photocatalytic degradation performance of organic dyes (RhB and MO). Furthermore, the underlying photocatalytic oxidation mechanism was proposed by the controlled experiments using radical scavengers.