Edge-grafting carbon nitride with aromatic rings for highly-efficient charge separation and enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

In this study, a simple but effective one-pot thermal polycondensation method was developed to introduce a quinoline ring and naphthalene ring on the edge of g-C₃N₄. This structural modification enables electrons to migrate from the inner of g-C₃N₄ to the reactive sites on its edge. The prepared edge-grafted samples exhibit excellent separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers and enhanced light harvesting capacity. The hydrogen production rate reaches up to 143.5 μmol h⁻¹ over the optimum-loaded UCN-QL sample, which is about 5.1 times that over the original UCN. Moreover, under the illumination of 450 nm light, the apparent quantum yield reaches 8.8%. This work sheds new light on designing highly-efficient g-C₃N₄-based photocatalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production under solar light.