Overall water splitting by Pt/g-C3N4 photocatalysts without using sacrificial agents

Guigang Zhang; Zhi-An Lan; Lihua Lin; Sen Lin; Xinchen Wang

doi:10.1039/C5SC04572J

Overall water splitting by Pt/g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts without using sacrificial agents†

Guigang Zhang,^a Zhi-An Lan,^a Lihua Lin,^a Sen Lin^a and Xinchen Wang*^a

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
E-mail: xcwang@fzu.edu.cn
Web: http://www.wanglab.fzu.edu.cn

Abstract

We report the direct splitting of pure water by light-excited graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) modified with Pt, PtO_x, and CoO_x as redox cocatalysts, while pure g-C₃N₄ is virtually inactive for overall water splitting by photocatalysis. The novelty is in the selective creation of both H₂ and O₂ cocatalysts on surface active sites of g-C₃N₄via photodeposition triggering the splitting of water for the simultaneous evolution of H₂ and O₂ gases in a stoichiometric ratio of 2 : 1, irradiated with light, without using any sacrificial reagents. The photocatalyst was stable for 510 hours of reaction.

This article is part of the themed collections: In celebration of Kazunari Domen’s 65th birthday, 2018, Global Energy Challenges: Hydrogen Energy, Top 50 Articles of 2016: Energy and Catalysis and Top 50 Articles of 2016: Physical Chemistry

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5SC04572J
Article type: Edge Article
Submitted: 27 11 2015
Accepted: 27 1 2016
First published: 27 1 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry

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Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 3062-3066

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Overall water splitting by Pt/g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts without using sacrificial agents

G. Zhang, Z. Lan, L. Lin, S. Lin and X. Wang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 3062 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC04572J

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