Issue 3, 2017

Graphene oxide coupled carbon nitride homo-heterojunction photocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen production

Abstract

This contribution reports the synthesis, characterization and application of a new ternary homo-heterojunction photocatalyst for improved hydrogen production via water-splitting. The heterostructure is constructed by soft-grafting of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) and graphene oxide (GO) into an amorphous carbon nitride (ACN) substrate. In this ternary hybrid, a cascaded redox-junction is formed that significantly facilitates the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs (EHPs), retards EHP recombination and shuttles electrons to the photocatalyst/liquid interface for proton reduction reactions. When deposited with 3 wt% Pt as a cocatalyst, this new photocatalyst exhibits hydrogen production of 251 μmol h−1 from 10 vol% aqueous triethanolamine solution under visible light (420 nm) irradiation with an apparent quantum efficiency of 6.3%. This ternary photocatalyst therefore outperforms stand-alone/binary photocatalysts and promises to be a viable alternative to metal-based photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Graphene oxide coupled carbon nitride homo-heterojunction photocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
29 Sept. 2016
Accepted
26 Okt. 2016
First published
11 Nov. 2016

Mater. Chem. Front., 2017,1, 562-571

Graphene oxide coupled carbon nitride homo-heterojunction photocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen production

M. Z. Rahman, J. Zhang, Y. Tang, K. Davey and S. Qiao, Mater. Chem. Front., 2017, 1, 562 DOI: 10.1039/C6QM00241B

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