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Enhanced visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution of ultrathin narrow-band-gap g-C3N4 nanosheets

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Abstract

To broaden the light response range of semiconductor photocatalysts and improve the efficiency of photocatalytic reaction are the focuses of the production of clean hydrogen energy through solar photocatalytic water splitting. Metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is an efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic material. In this study, a kind of narrow-band-gap g-C3N4 has been synthesized at high synthesis temperature under hydrogen argon mixture. And then a two-step method of ultrasonication and calcination treatment was used to synthesize ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets with much bigger specific surface area. The results of characterization analysis indicate that the as-prepared ultrathin narrow-band-gap g-C3N4 nanosheets show great light absorbance in visible light and high photogenerated charge separation capability. And the as-prepared ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light (λ > 480 nm).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Science Foundation Project, 21706188) and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (No. 18JCYBJC17700).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Yu & Zhimin Hu

  2. College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, 583 Xuelin Street, Jianggan District, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China

    Hongmei Wang

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, 135 Elegant Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People’s Republic of China

    Hongmei Wang & Xin Tan

  4. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Yu

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  1. Tao Yu
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Correspondence to Tao Yu.

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Yu, T., Hu, Z., Wang, H. et al. Enhanced visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution of ultrathin narrow-band-gap g-C3N4 nanosheets. J Mater Sci 55, 2118–2128 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-04082-7

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