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Effective Prevention of Charge Trapping in Graphitic Carbon Nitride with Nanosized Red Phosphorus Modification for Superior Photo(electro)catalysis
Author(s) -
Jing Lin,
Zhu Ruixue,
Phillips David Lee,
Yu Jimmy C.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201703484
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , materials science , trapping , phosphorus , graphitic carbon nitride , catalysis , nitride , hydrogen , carbon fibers , spectroscopy , hydrogen production , carbon nitride , absorption (acoustics) , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , photochemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , composite number , composite material , ecology , physics , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics , engineering , metallurgy , biology
The high occurrence of trapped unreactive charges due to chemical defects seriously affects the performance of g‐C 3 N 4 in photocatalytic applications. This problem can be overcome by introducing ultrasmall red phosphorus (red P) crystals on g‐C 3 N 4 sheets. The elemental red P atoms reduce the number of defects in the g‐C 3 N 4 structure by forming new chemical bonds for much more effective charge separation. The product shows significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen production. To the best of our knowledge, the hydrogen evolution rate obtained on this hybrid should be the highest among all P‐containing g‐C 3 N 4 photocatalysts reported so far. The trapping and detrapping processes in this red P/g‐C 3 N 4 system are thoroughly revealed by using time‐resolved transient absorption spectroscopy.