Self-hybridized coralloid graphitic carbon nitride deriving from deep eutectic solvent as effective visible light photocatalysts

The room temperature deep eutectic solvent (DES) is demonstrated as an ideal precursor to prepare self-hybridized graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) for the first time, for its special components, randomly reorganized molecules and extensive hydrogen bonds. In this work, by adjusting the proportion of urea and ammonium thiocyanate in the precursor DES, the self-hybridized coralloid g-C3N4, stacked by a mass of double-layer g-C3N4/g-C3N4 nanocages, were prepared without any templates. Compared to conventional g-C3N4 prepared using melamine, urea and AT as precursors, the improved charge transfer between the interfaces of the self-hybridized g-C3N4 has been demonstrated, which is attributed to the well-matched electronic band structures of the two g-C3N4 species, the abundant 2D/2D interfacial contact and increased photocatalytic active sites. As expected, it exhibits highly enhanced photocatalytic activity, which is among the best g-C3N4 photocatalysts without doping any other elements.