Carbon nitride nanoplatelet photocatalysts heterostructured with B-doped carbon nanodots for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants.

Decorating electron-accepting materials on carbon nitride (C3N4) is a promising strategy to construct heterostructure catalysts for improved photocatalytic abilities. In this study, B-doped carbon-dots (B-C-dots) decorated C3N4 (C3N4/B-C-dots) catalysts were fabricated through the surface deposition. The benefits from integration of B-C-dots and C3N4 are four folds: (i) increasing surface area; (ii) improving visible light absorption; (iii) promoting the transfer of photoinduced carriers; and (iv) reducing the recombination of photoinduced carriers. The optimum photocatalytic activity of B-C-dots/C3N4 for Rhodamine B (Rh B) (or tetracycline hydrochloride (TC)) degradation was about 7.21 (6.56) and 4.80 (4.35) times higher than that of C3N4 and C-dots/C3N4, respectively, exhibiting both remarkable stability and repeatability. Moreover, enhanced photocatalytic activity of C3N4/B-C-dots could also be attributed to the type-II heterojunction formed between C3N4 and B-C-dots caused by B doping.