Enhanced Antibacterial Photocatalytic Activity of Porous Few-Layer C₃N₄

Nowadays, antibacterial photocatalytic activity of semiconductors has attracted great attention due to its excellent stability, good biocompatibility and no disinfection byproducts. Herein, a porous few-layer C₃N₄ was successfully fabricated via a simple and low-cost bottom-up method. The asprepared porous few-layer C₃N₄ exhibits large specific surface areas, which is about 4.8 times than bulk C₃N₄. Under the light (<430 nm) irradiation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) (singlet oxygen (¹O₂), hydroxyl radicals (·OH), and superoxide (O^·-₂)) can be generated. The porous few-layer C₃N₄ was used as an antibacterial agent to kill gram-positive bacterium S. Aureus with an anibacterial efficiency up to 99.7%. The log removal rate of the porous few-layer C₃N₄ is more than 50 times than the bulk C₃N₄. The material shows a potential application in water purification and antibacterial photocatalytic therapy.