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Superior Photocatalytic Generation of H 2 in Water Medium Through Grafting a Cobalt Molecule Co‐Catalyst from Carbon Nitride Nanosheets
Author(s) -
Zhang JunShuai,
Zhang WeiDe
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201900443
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , overpotential , cobalt , catalysis , carbon nitride , materials science , nitride , water splitting , graphitic carbon nitride , noble metal , carbon fibers , photochemistry , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , nanotechnology , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , electrode , layer (electronics) , composite material , composite number , engineering
To develop stable, efficient, non‐noble metal‐based photocatalysts for water splitting has become a long‐standing challenge. Here, cobalt−phenanthroline active species are grafted from metal‐free photosensitive carbon nitride nanosheets (CN) by dehydration reaction between pendant amino groups from CN and carboxyl groups of functional phenanthroline ligands for photocatalytic H 2 evolution in water medium. The cobalt complex unit serves as a cocatalyst to accelerate separation and transferring of photoexcited charge carriers, and reduce overpotential for H 2 evolution. The hybrid catalyst without any precious metals exhibits excellent performance of H 2 evolution (272 μmol g −1 h −1 ) and high stability during photocatalytic reaction. The finding not only develops a facile way to prepare high‐performance low‐cost photocatalysts for photocatalytic H 2 production, but also provides a new insight into optimizing the interface between cocatalysts and photosensitizers for photocatalytic reaction by grafting active sites directly from semiconductors.