Open AccessGraphitic carbon nitride with thermally-induced nitrogen defects: an efficient process to enhance photocatalytic H2 production performance
Author(s) -
Guangzhi Dong,
Yun Wen,
Huiqing Fan,
Chao Wang,
Zhenxiang Cheng,
Mingchang Zhang,
Jiangwei Ma,
Shujun Zhang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
rsc advances
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.746
H-Index - 148
ISSN - 2046-2069
DOI - 10.1039/d0ra01425g
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , graphitic carbon nitride , nitrogen , materials science , chemical engineering , nitride , carbon nitride , carbon fibers , process (computing) , production (economics) , nanotechnology , chemistry , catalysis , composite material , organic chemistry , computer science , layer (electronics) , composite number , engineering , economics , macroeconomics , operating system
Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 , CN) with nitrogen vacancies was synthesized by a controlled thermal etching method in a semi-closed air-conditioning system. The defect-modified g-C 3 N 4 shows an excellent photocatalytic performance demonstrated by water splitting under visible light irradiation. With proper heat-treatment durations such as 2 h (CN2) and 4 h (CN4) at 550 °C, the hydrogen production rates significantly increase to 100 μmol h -1 and 72 μmol h -1 , which are 11 times and 8 times the rate of the pristine CN (8.8 μmol h -1 ) respectively. The excellent hydrogen production performance of nitrogen defect modified CN2 is due to the synergy effect of the decreased band gap, enlarged specific surface area and increased separation/migration efficiency of photoinduced charge carriers. This simple defect engineering method provides a good paradigm to improve the photocatalytic performance by tailoring the electronic and physical structures of g-C 3 N 4 .