Large-scale production of ultrathin carbon nitride-based photocatalysts for high-yield hydrogen evolution

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 281; p. 119475
• Main Authors: Yi, Jianjian, Fei, Ting, Li, Li, Yu, Qing, Zhang, Sai, Song, Yanhua, Lian, Jiabiao, Zhu, Xianglin, Deng, Jiujun, Xu, Hui, Li, Huaming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbon nitride; Charge transfer; Chemical synthesis; Efficiency; Electric charge; Electric fields; Heterostructures; Hydrogen evolution; Large-scale synthesis; Niobium oxides; Photocatalysis; Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution; Production methods; Quantum efficiency; two-dimensional structure; two-dimensional structure; Large-scale synthesis; Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution; Carbon nitride
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119475

[Display omitted] •A "subtractive" manufacturing method for mass-production of ultrathin carbon nitride is developed.•The large-scale synthesized catalyst shows high quantum efficiency arriving 50.65 % and 14.75 % at 405 nm and 420 nm.•The origin of high catalytic efficiency is discussed and revealed. Although two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride (2D g-C3N4) and corresponding heterostructures have been widely synthesized for photocatalysis, it is still challenging to obtain 2D g-C3N4 at large-scale and also achieve high quantum efficiency. Here we report a subtractive manufacturing method mediated by Nb2O5 to mass-produce high quality Nb2O5/2D g-C3N4 and pure 2D g-C3N4. Nb2O5/2D g-C3N4 and 2D g-C3N4 both show efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance, in which the optimal Nb2O5/2D g-C3N4 exhibits high external quantum efficiency (50.65 % and 14.75 % at 405 nm and 420 nm). The origin of the high efficiency can be ascribed to two aspects: (i) nanostructure engineering forming 2D structure can shorten the charge migration distance; (ii) Nb2O5/2D g-C3N4 with strong electric coupling can further accelerate the charge transfer driven by the built-in electric field formed in Type II heterostructure. This work presents a case study to realize high-yield synthesis and high catalytic performance simultaneously over g-C3N4.