Facile fabrication of hollow carbon nitride microspheres with mesoporous structures: When ethanol meets cyanamide

Abstract A facile method for preparing hollow mesoporous carbon nitride microspheres (HMCNMs) has been developed. A cyanamide/ethanol solution was used as a precursor, with ethanol acting as both a solvent and a porogen, to prepare HMCNMs with a high surface area of 112 m2/g. It was demonstrated that the HMCNM microstructure and surface morphology can be controlled by adjusting the proportion of ethanol in the precursor solution. The resulting HMCNMs exhibited much higher visible light photocatalytic degradative activity toward methylene blue than bulk graphitic carbon nitride.