Synthesis of carbon nitride in moist environments: A defect engineering strategy toward superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Intimate understanding of the synthesis-structure-activity relationships is an accessible pathway to overcome the intrinsic challenges of carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalysts. This work looks in the effects of humidity of the synthesis process to the morphology, chemical structure, band structure as well as the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 materials. Four g-C3N4 samples were prepared by heating melem in four gas environments: dry Ar, dry Air, moist Ar and moist Air. The photocatalytic activity measurements revealed that the samples synthesized in moist inert and oxidic gases environments displayed 20 and 10 times the photocatalytic H-2 evolution activity of the samples synthesized in dry inert and oxidic gases environments, respectively. The reasons for this remarkable variety in photocatalytic activities had been through investigated. After all, the terminations of the carbon vacancies were identified as the dominant factor in enhancing H-2 evolution performance. The work here thus demonstrating an example of defect engineering. (C) 2020 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigates the synthesis-structure-activity relationships of carbon nitride photocatalysts and demonstrates the significant impact of humidity on photocatalytic activity, highlighting the importance of defect engineering in enhancing catalytic performance.