Effects of experimental conditions on the growth of g–C3N4 nanocones by plasma sputtering reaction deposition

Abstract

[Formula: see text]-C3N4 has photocatalytic hydrogen evolution properties in the visible light spectrum so that it has been extensively studied in recent years. In this paper, crystalline [Formula: see text]-C3N4 nanocones were prepared on silicon wafers by plasma sputtering reactive deposition under different substrate pretreatment and vacuum annealing conditions. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy results show that different pretreatment methods and conditions for silicon wafers will affect the growth of nanocones. Only when the surface roughness of the silicon wafer is appropriate can the well-crystalline [Formula: see text]-C3N4 nanocones with complete shape and moderate density be obtained. In addition, different annealing temperatures also affect the structures of the nanocones, and too high annealing temperatures may even destroy them.