LAUSR

Photocatalytic oxidation technology for the anoxic removal of organic pollutants that exist under some oxygen-free conditions is attractive but challenging. In this work, oxygen doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with outstanding visible light activity under anoxic conditions is synthesized via oxygen-plasma treatment for the first time. Oxygen doping does not influence the structure of g-C3N4 but changes its morphology, enhances the SBET, decreases the band gap energy and increases the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, which increase anoxic photocatalytic RhB degradation constants by approximately 6 times. After plasma treatment, doped oxygen not only increases the adsorption ability of g-C3N4 but also captures photogenerated electrons to reserve photogenerated holes for RhB degradation under anoxic conditions. This study provides a new insight into the design and fabrication of oxygen-free photocatalysts.