The utilization of photocatalytic technology to remove air pollutants has attracted global interest. However, it still suffers from low removal activities under visible light irradiation. In this study, we demonstrated that the switching of the semiconducting behavior from n-type to p-type can efficiently improve the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 for nitric oxide (NO) removal about 3.5 times. This is due to that such switching could change the majority of carriers in g-C3N4 from electrons to holes. Interestingly, the photocatalytic removal of NO in both n-type and p-type g-C3N4 is proceeded via hole oxidation. More importantly, p-type g-C3N4 displays strong stability in both photocatalytic performance and crystal structures. This study provides a new strategy to improve the photocatalytic activity of semiconductors for air pollution removal. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.