Biomolecule-assisted synthesis of carbon nitride and sulfur-doped carbon nitride heterojunction nanosheets: An efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for photoelectrochemical applications

• Hua Bing Tao,
• Hong Bin Yang,
• Jiazang Chen,
• Jianwei Miao and
• Bin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 770–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.89

• reported pyrolysis method [23]. Typically, 2 g of melamine powder was put into an alumina crucible covered with a piece of titanium sheet, then heated at a heating rate of 2.3 °C/min to 550 °C in a tube furnace and maintained at this temperature for 4 h under flowing argon. To synthesize sulfur-doped

• carbon nitride (CNS), 222 mg of L-cysteine was blended with 2 g of melamine in an agate mortar, wherein L-cysteine acts as the sulfur source for sulfur doping. During the pyrolysis process, the –SH functional group in L-cysteine reacts with the amine group in melamine to substitute the N atoms and to

• form the S–C bond. Following, this mixture was heated to 550 °C at a heating rate of 2.3 °C/min and maintained at this temperature for 2 h. The CN/CNS heterojunction was prepared through thermal condensation of melamine on preformed CNS nanosheets. Specifically, 1 g of melamine and 1 g of preformed CNS