Probing the role of H-ZSM-5 zeolite in the hydrogen evolution performance of graphitic carbon nitride

• Published in: Journal of environmental chemical engineering Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 111231
• Main Authors: Jia, Ruokun, Deng, Jiayuan, Yang, Xiaohang, Xue, Ruisong, Wang, Pengpeng, Bian, Xingbo, Wang, Qiyao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2023
• Subjects: Graphitic carbon nitride; H-ZSM-5 zeolite; H2 evolution; Photocatalysis; H2 evolution; H-ZSM-5 zeolite; Photocatalysis; Graphitic carbon nitride
• ISSN: 2213-3437
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2023.111231

Graphitic carbon nitride (CN) hold great promise as a photocatalyst for generating hydrogen energy via water splitting, owing to its remarkable ability to respond to visible light and its strong reduction capacity. However, the photocatalytic water splitting for H2 evolution performance of pure CN was impeded by its low surface area, inadequate hydrophilicity, and unsatisfactory photoelectric conversion efficiency. Here we tackled these challenges by synthesizing a series of CN/H-ZSM-5 composites with varying amount of H-ZSM-5 zeolite using a straightforward thermal copolymerization method. The contact angle and N2 adsorption-desorption measurements confirmed that the incorporated hydrophilic and porous H-ZSM-5 zeolite contribute to increased surface area and improved hydrophilicity of the CN/H-ZSM-5 composites. Meanwhile the resulting CN/H-ZSM-5 composites exhibited significant separation and migration enhancement of photoexcited charge carriers. Consequently, the optimized CN/H-ZSM-5 composite, containing 50 mg of H-ZSM-5 zeolite, demonstrated 13 times increase in photocatalytic H2 production rate than that of pure CN. This work not only provided a competitively universal approach on the design of high-efficiency CN based photocatalyst, but also clarified the role of H-ZSM-5 zeolite in the H2 evolution enhancement.
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•Hydrophilic and porous H-ZSM-5 zeolite was innovatively employed to construct CN/H-ZSM-5 composites.•The introduced H-ZSM-5 zeolite enabled increased surface area and improved hydrophilicity.•The content of H-ZSM-5 zeolite could tune separation and migration efficiency of photoexcited charge carriers.•The obtained CN/H-ZSM-5 composite exhibited increased photocatalytic H2 evolution performance.