A facile and green microwave hydrothermal method for fabricating g-C3N4 nanosheets with improved hydrogen evolution performance

Herein, a microwave hydrothermal method was developed for constructing g-C3N4 nanosheets. The specific surface area of the photocatalyst using this method was larger than the bulk carbon nitride. In addition, this method yields g-C3N4 with a lower electron-hole recombination rate and faster interface charge transport. Particularly, the conduction band shifts to a more negative position, leading to better reducibility. As expected, the g-C3N4 nanosheets had excellent activity in hydrogen evolution (over 10 times that of the bulk carbon nitride). Additionally, the photocatalyst prepared using this method had good stability in the hydrogen evolution reaction. This work proposes a new, universal, facile and green technique route for preparing g-C3N4 nanosheets. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A microwave hydrothermal method was developed for constructing g-C3N4 nanosheets with larger specific surface area and lower electron-hole recombination rate. The conduction band shifts to a more negative position, leading to better reducibility. The g-C3N4 nanosheets showed excellent activity in hydrogen evolution and good stability.