A facile method to introduce a donor-acceptor system into polymeric carbon nitride for efficient photocatalytic overall water splitting

It is a prospective strategy to produce sustainable energy by photocatalytic overall water splitting(POWS).This work aims to develop a simple method for integrating a donor-acceptor system into polymeric car-bon nitride(PCN)structure,which could accelerate the charge separation significantly.In the as-prepared photocatalyst(COCNT),carbon and oxygen were successfully incorporated into the framework of PCN,and the chemical environment of C and O was well probed by X-ray absorption near-edge structure(XANES)and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS).It showed that the C-containing and O-containing segments of COCNT played the role of a donor,while the heptazine part played the role of an acceptor.In addition,Density-functional-theory(DFT)calculations confirmed the spatial split of the highest occupied molec-ular orbital(HOMO)and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO)for promoting charge separation.Impressively,COCNT could efficiently split pure water to generate hydrogen and oxygen.And,the photo-catalytic hydrogen evolution rate over COCNT(1550.9μmol g^(-1)h^(-1))is about 17-fold higher than that of PCN.Finally,we proposed a possible photocatalytic mechanism to explain the above results.

Accumulation of localized charge on the surface of polymeric carbon nitride boosts the photocatalytic activity

The random mobility of charge carriers is a main factor causing the low photocatalytic efficiency of gCN.Thus,the controllable migration of charge carriers is a rational strategy to suppress the charge recombination and facilitate charge separation.Herein,an ethylenediamine modified g-C_(3)N_(4)displays improved photocatalytic activity.The excellent charge separation efficiency is confirmed to be a key factor for the enhancement.The TEM observation after photo-depositing Pt nanoparticles and DFT calculations verify the accumulation of electrons on some areas of g-C_(3)N_(4)surface.The increased-NH_(2)groups significantly tune the electronic structure of g-C_(3)N_(4)after the modification.The generation of midgap states also affects the charge separation.Our reports provide a simple method to manage the migration of charge carriers and enable electrons directional transfer,which suppresses the recombination and improves the photocatalytic activity.