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Reduced Oxygenated g ‐C 3 N 4 with Abundant Nitrogen Vacancies for Visible‐Light Photocatalytic Applications
Author(s) -
Sun Na,
Liang Yan,
Ma Xujun,
Chen Feng
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201703168
Subject(s) - photocurrent , photocatalysis , nitrogen , oxygen , band gap , visible spectrum , materials science , hydrothermal circulation , chemistry , photochemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , catalysis , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , engineering
A novel g ‐C 3 N 4 photocatalyst (RCNO) with abundant nitrogen vacancies and oxygen‐containing electron‐withdrawing groups was prepared. Oxygen was gradually introduced into the g ‐C 3 N 4 structure by a hydrothermal hydrolysis/condensation process, and nitrogen vacancies were produced with H 2 reduction. The presence of nitrogen vacancies reduced the conduction band energy of g ‐C 3 N 4 from −0.75 to −0.5 eV and introduced plenty of defect levels in the band gap (just below the conductive band with a width of 0.45 eV). The oxygenation of g ‐C 3 N 4 induced the formation of oxygen‐containing functional groups, such as C=O and C−O, as well as effectively enhancing the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers and reducing the valence band energy from 2.05 to 2.30 eV. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity and photocurrent responses of RCNO were about nine and eight times higher than that of g ‐C 3 N 4 , respectively.