Porous nanosheets of carbon-conjugated graphitic carbon nitride for the oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur

Graphitic carbon nitride (CN) has been reported as an emerging non-metallic catalyst for the oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur, but its industrial application is hampered by the unsatisfactory catalytic activity. Herein, we report for the first time a facile bottom-up approach to synthesize porous nanosheets of in-plane carbon-conjugated CN (PCNUC) using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and urea as precursors. The resulted PCNUC catalysts are porous and high in specific surface area because CTAB acts not only as a carbon source for conjugation with CN for the extension of π-electron system, but also releases gases to function as soft template to create porous CN-based sheets. Thus, the carbon-conjugated CN displays high performance for the catalytic oxidation of H2S to S. Furthermore, the optimized PCNUC catalyst exhibits better durability than the traditional carbon-based and Fe2O3-based catalysts. The results of the present study open up a new avenue for the design of efficient CN-based catalysts for desulfurization reactions. A facile bottom-up approach for the fabrication of in-plane carbon-conjugated CN porous nanosheets that is catalytically effective for the catalytic oxidation of H2S to sulfur has been developed. [Display omitted] •For the first time a simple bottom-up strategy has been developed to synthesize carbon-conjugated CN porous nanosheets.•CTAB acts as a carbon source to conjugate with CN for the extension of π-electron system.•The carbon-conjugated CN exhibits excellent performance for the catalytic oxidation of H2S to S.•The extension of CN π-electron framework leads to higher ability for H2S and O2 activation.