Facile steam activation route to synthesize S-doped graphitic polymeric carbon nitride nanosheets for increased photocatalytic H2 generation

Increasing the visible light absorption ability as well as the surface area of graphitic carbon nitride is an effect strategy for enhanced photocatalytic H-2 generation but still remains a big challenge. Herein, we reported on a steam activation route to effectively synthesize S-doped g-CN nanosheets from the thermolysis of melamine and thiocyanuric acid mixture in a steam atmosphere. The resulted g-CN-TM1 exhibits an extended light absorption edge of 600 nm with a surface area of 65.2 m(2) g(-1), As expected, g-CN-TM1 shows significantly improved performance with a H-2 generation rate of 44.3 mu mol h(-1), which is 5 times higher than that of pristine g-CN. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, S-doped g-CN nanosheets were successfully synthesized via a steam activation route, which exhibited enhanced visible light absorption ability and surface area. The resulted g-CN-TM1 showed significantly improved performance in photocatalytic H-2 generation compared to pristine g-CN.