Assembled Porphyrin Nanofiber on the Surface of g-C3N4 Nanomaterials for Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes

Abstract

In this work, a g-C3N4/porphyrin nanocomposite was fabricated through the self-assembling of monomeric Tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) molecules with g-C3N4 nanomaterials. The characterizing results showed a good distribution of TCPP nanofibers with a diameter of < 100 nm and several micrometers in length on the g-C3N4 nanoflakes’ surfaces. The prepared g-C3N4/porphyrin nanocomposite had two bandgap energies of 2.38 and 2.7 eV, which could harvest a wide range of photon energy in the light spectrum, particularly in visible light. The obtained C3N4/TCPP nanocomposite revealed a remarkable photodegradation efficiency toward rhodamine B dyes, with a RhB removing rate of 3.3 × 10−2 min−1. The plausible mechanism for the photocatalytic performance of the g-C3N4/porphyrin photocatalyst for the RhB dye’s degradation was also studied and discussed.