Physical characterization and microstructure evaluation of graphite carbon nitride-CuO photocatalytic composite and its application in organic pollutants degradation

3^rd International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering

October 06-08, 2014 Hilton San Antonio Airport, USA

Mona E Ossman and Marwa Abd-Elfattah

Accepted Abstracts: Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Semiconductor photocatalysis technique is a ?green? method to completely eliminate most kinds of environmental contaminations. In the past years, the photocatalytic degradation of environmental organic pollutants has attracted extensive attention because of low-cost and nontoxic end products. The development of visible-light-driven (VLD) photocatalysts has been done by more and more researchers. Graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C3N4) are recognized as the most stable allotrope of carbon nitride and have an optical band gap of 2.7 eV. It can be synthesized from a simple precursor via a series of polycondensation reactions without any metal involvement. Due to its high nitrogen content and facile synthesis procedure, g-C3N4 may provide more active reaction sites than other N-carbon materials. CuO has been applied to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of some wide band gap semiconductors. The novel CuO-g-C3N4 composite photocatalyst was prepared. The aim was to further improve the VLD photocatalytic activity of CuO and g-C3N4. Also study the application of the prepared composite in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants such as phenol and ortho-cresol.

Biography :

Mona E Ossman got her BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. She received her PhD from Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA. At present, she is working as an Associate Professor at the Petrochemical Engineering Department at Pharos University.