Issue 9, 2018

Protonated carbon nitride nanosheet supported IrO2 quantum dots for pure water splitting without sacrificial reagents

Abstract

A novel photocatalyst with protonated carbon nitride (p-C3N4) loaded with IrO2 quantum dots (QDs) was fabricated via a facile hydrothermal method. Structure characterization studies (XRD, STEM, XPS, UV–vis spectra and PL spectra) revealed that the IrO2 QDs with an average diameter of ca. 2 nm were highly dispersed and anchored to the surfaces of p-C3N4. The introduced IrO2 QDs promoted the electron–hole separation efficiency of p-C3N4 and increased the absorbance capacity within the visible light range. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated using hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water splitting under visible light illumination. The optimum IrO2/C3N4-0.6 wt% photocatalyst exhibits the highest hydrogen evolution rate of 45 μmol h−1 and oxygen production rate of 20 μmol h−1. Under visible light irradiation, the composite photocatalyst shows higher photocurrents, more negative onset potential and lower photoluminescence intensity compared with those of p-C3N4, which demonstrated that the modification of IrO2 QDs accelerated the transformation, separation, and utilization of photoelectrons and thereby significantly improved the photocatalytic performance.

Graphical abstract: Protonated carbon nitride nanosheet supported IrO2 quantum dots for pure water splitting without sacrificial reagents

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
04 May 2018
Accepted
20 Jul 2018
First published
23 Jul 2018

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2018,5, 2268-2275

Protonated carbon nitride nanosheet supported IrO2 quantum dots for pure water splitting without sacrificial reagents

N. Wang and X. Li, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2018, 5, 2268 DOI: 10.1039/C8QI00419F

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