Hydrothermal polymerization of glucose and melamine to form g-C₃N₄@graphene oxide sandwich nanochip-assembled porous microsphere

Nanocomposites composed of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and carbon (C) nanomaterial have attracted great interests in recent years. Different from the general two-step synthesis methods of g-C3N4/C nanocomposites, a one-step hydrothermal method was reported here to synthesize g-C3N4@graphene oxide (CN@GO) nanocomposite at low temperature. Under hydrothermal condition, the carbonization of glucose induced the polymerization of melamine to form CN@GO nanochips, which assembled into porous microsphere. The CN@GO chip has a sandwich structure whose outer layers are made of GO and interlayer is made of tri-s-triazine units. Such nanochip-assembled porous structure on the one hand could facilitate the π-π coupling between g-C3N4 and GO and then the promising photocatalytic performance of CN@GO microsphere, on the other hand, could serve as an ideal support for the other nanomaterials with catalytic activity.