Abstract Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ) is metal‐free polymeric semiconductor that has potential as photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants. The major hindrances to the efficient photocatalytic performance of g‐C 3 N 4 are low stability and lower number of active sites. Also, crystalline structure of graphitic carbon nitride is still less addressed. In present research study, we have synthesized temperature‐assisted carbamide‐derived graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ) nanomaterial to study the photodegradation of methylene blue organic dye. Structural properties were studied using XRD, Rietveld refinement, FTIR spectroscopic methods. Field Emission SEM (FESEM) were used to determine the morphological nature of samples. TEM, HRTEM and SAED patterns were used to study the morphology and to further confirm the crystalline properties of prepared samples. In optical studies, UV‐visible and PL spectroscopic measurements were used to estimate optical bandgap, Urbach energy, dye degradation and vacancies, other defects respectively. g‐C 3 N 4 prepared at temperature 500 °C showed superior photo‐catalytic activity with degradation efficiency of 99.47% in 90 min for methylene blue (MB) dye ascribed to optimized structural packing, direct bandgap of 3.09 eV, high Urbach energy (106.14 meV) and reduced defect density. This paper aims to elucidate the crystalline structure using Rietveld refinement and uncover the other salient properties including electron density map, chromaticity plot of g‐C 3 N 4 for promoting further research in the field of metal‐free photocatalyst.
Pandey et al. (Mon,) studied this question.