Improving Photocatalytic Activity for Formaldehyde Degradation by Encapsulating C60 Fullerenes into Graphite-like C3N4 through the Enhancement of Built-in Electric Fields

Abstract

The photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde by graphite-like C3N4 is one of the most attractive and environmentally friendly strategies to address the significant threat to human health posed by indoor air pollutants. Despite its potential, this degradation process still faces issues with suboptimal efficiency, which may be attributed to the rapid recombination of photogenerated excitons and the broad band gap. As a proof of concept, a series of graphite-like C3N4@C60 composites combining graphite-like C3N4 and C60 was developed via an in situ generation strategy. The obtained graphite-like C3N4@C60 composites exhibited a remarkable increase in the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of formaldehyde, of up to 99%, under visible light irradiation, outperforming pure graphite-like C3N4 and C60. This may be due to the composites’ enhanced built-in electric field. Additionally, the proposed composites maintained a formaldehyde removal efficiency of 84% even after six cycles, highlighting their potential for indoor air purification and paving the way for the development of efficient photocatalysts.