Issue 37, 2018

A facile method for scalable synthesis of ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets for efficient hydrogen production

Abstract

2D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has attracted great attention as one of the rising-star candidates for prominent water-splitting photocatalysts. Here, we report an extremely facile one-step, template-free method to synthesize ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets (CN-UMF) by thermal polycondensation of urea simply covered with kitchen-available melamine foam (MF). Compared with g-C3N4 agglomerates (CN-U) prepared without the covering of MF, the as-synthesized CN-UMF has an average thickness of about 4.5 nm and an enlarged surface area of 150.3 m2 g−1, leading to enhanced visible light absorption and charge carrier separation abilities. Therefore, it is able to serve as an efficient water-splitting photocatalyst to result in an outstanding hydrogen production rate of 5498 μmol g−1 h−1. This work provides a new facile strategy for the scalable synthesis of 2D g-C3N4 photocatalysts and paves the way for batch and green production of other 2D materials with good performance.

Graphical abstract: A facile method for scalable synthesis of ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets for efficient hydrogen production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jul 2018
Accepted
30 Aug 2018
First published
01 Sep 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 18252-18257

A facile method for scalable synthesis of ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets for efficient hydrogen production

J. Zhang, Y. Hou, S. Wang, X. Zhu, C. Zhu, Z. Wang, C. Li, J. Jiang, H. Wang, M. Pan and C. Su, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 18252 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA06726K

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