Estudio del efecto del dopaje con cobre, hierro y manganeso en el catalizador de nitruro de carbono grafítico (g-C3N4) sintetizado a partir de urea, en la reacción fotocatalítica de oxidación del alcohol bencílico.

Abstract

The effect of doping a graphitic carbon nitride catalyst with copper, iron and manganese was studied. For the synthesis of the catalysts, urea was placed in a muffle furnace at 600 ° C, and metal salts of copper, iron and manganese were added, separately; also, carbon nitride undoped was synthesized. Pyrolysis times of 10 min, 30 min and 40 min were tested. The catalysts were characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated in the photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol, under visible light irradiation, with two types of oxidants: hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen. There were statistically significant differences in the conversion percentage of the oxidation reaction of alcohol among the four catalysts tested. The highest percentage corresponded to the reaction with molecular oxygen and the catalyst doped with iron, and it was 22.21% in 2 h reaction. The reusability capacity of this catalyst was evaluated; since it was the one which presented the highest photocatalytic ability. It was used four times in the oxidation reaction, and statistical analyzes showed that there were not significant differences among the four essays.