ARC-DISCHARGE SYNTHESIZING OF CARBON NITRIDE

Carbon nitride is found in the powder prepared by are discharge of two graphite rods in nitrogen gas for the first time. The chemical bondin g, composition and structure of the powder are investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), tran smission electron diffraction (TED) and X-ray photoelectron spectrosco py (XPS). The infrared absorption peak at 1110.074 cm(-1) conforms the presence of pseudocubic carbon nitride (p-C3N4) phase in the powder. The lattice spacing of p-C3N4 about 3.38 Angstrom found by XRD and TEM is smaller than the theoretical calculation value (3.43 Angstrom). Th e diffraction patterns of the powder including p-C3N4, p-C3N4 and amor phous carbon ball are checked by TEM. The nitrogen content measured by XPS is low (about 8%), which is due to large amount of carbon balls i n the powder. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.