Journal of Chromatography & Separation Techniques
Open Access
ISSN: 2157-7064
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2157-7064
+44 1300 500008
Yongcai Zhang
Yangzhou University, China
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Chromatogr Sep Tech
Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a troublesome pollutant in the effluents of chromate-related industries. Cr(VI) has high toxicity and high solubility and mobility in water, and can do great harm to the environment and human health. Semiconductor mediated photocatalytic reduction is a effective, economical and environmental-friendly methods for treating Cr(VI) contaminated wastewaters. However, the lack of efficient, stable, cheap and nontoxic visible-light-driven photocatalysts limits the practical applications of photocatalytic technique. Graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a metal-free polymer semiconductor with a band gap of about 2.7 eV. It is nontoxic and has good chemical stability, and can be easily synthesized from abundant and cheap CN-containing precursors. Moreover, it has been proved to possess visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for many chemical reactions. Thus, g-C3N4 holds great promise as a visible-light-active photocatalyst for industrial applications. However, the g-C3N4synthesized via the traditional thermal condensation methods exhibited low photocatalytic activity, because of its large particles size and small specific surface area. Our studies showed that acid treatment at ambient condition or under hydrothermal conditions can greatly enhance the Cr(VI) adsorption and photocatalytic reduction activity of g-C3N4. The reasons accounting for the enhanced Cr(VI) adsorption and photocatalytic reduction activity of the treated g-C3N4 were discussed, and the different mechanisms for the photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) over g-C3N4 and the treated g-C3N4 were also proposed.
Email: zhangyc@yzu.edu.cn