A 3D nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic pollutant degradation and hydrogen evolution.

Three-dimensional (3D) graphene-based aerogels have attracted widespread interest as promising photocatalysts for dye degradation and hydrogen production. Herein, we have developed a 3D nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel (3DNG) from graphitic carbon nitride combined with graphene oxide (GO). The nitrogen dopant in the 3D aerogel was achieved a thermal treatment at 1000 °C, and the 3D aerogel catalyst could retain its 3D porous structure after the thermal treatment. The 3DNG was characterized FTIR, Raman, TEM, UV-vis, XPS spectroscopies and BET analysis, and the results indicated that this 3DNG with a large surface area of 536 m g and a band gap of 2.42 eV demonstrated a high adsorption capacity and enhanced methylene blue degradation and hydrogen production under visible light irradiation. Characterization also identified that the porous 3D structure with hydrogen bonding and π-π interactions and better charge transfer resulting from the nitrogen doping are the major reasons for the enhanced photocatalytic performance over this 3DNG catalyst.