Porous graphitic carbon nitride with high concentration of oxygen promotes photocatalytic H 2 evolution

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 12; no. 52; pp. 33688 - 33695
• Main Authors: Jia, Ruokun, Yu, Xueli, Yang, Xiaohang, Wang, Xinzhe, Yang, Jiaming, Huo, Xuyang, Qi, Qiuju
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 22-11-2022
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d2ra05662c

Porous structure design and the content regulation of heteroelements have been proved to be effective strategies to boost photocatalytic H
generation activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C
N
) based photocatalyst. Herein, a series of porous graphitic carbon nitride with high concentration of oxygen (g-C
N
-O) photocatalysts were synthesized
polymerization process using colloidal SiO
as oxygen source. The content of oxygen within the g-C
N
-O photocatalysts could be tuned by adjusting the amount of added colloidal SiO
during the preparation procedure. The introduced oxygen replaced two-coordinated nitrogen atom, influencing band edge position and localized electron distribution, thereby enhancing visible light harvesting and photoelectric conversion. As a result, the g-C
N
-O photocatalyst with an optimal oxygen content (8.39 wt%) showed 10.5 fold enhancement in H
evolution rate compared to that of bulk g-C
N
, attributed to the porous structure and high concentration of incorporated oxygen.