Sustainable nitrogen-doped functionalized graphene nanosheets for visible-light-induced photocatalytic water splitting

Nitrogen-doped functionalized graphene nanosheets (N-fGNS) were synthesized by a simple and green method and used for the visible-light-driven water splitting. Under visible light irradiation, N-fGNS produced H(2)and O-2(1380 and 689 mu M g(-1)h(-1), respectively) efficiently without co-catalysts. The excellent photocatalytic water splitting performance of N-fGNS is attributed to nitrogen doping and abundant surface defects as active sites.