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Nano Research 2022, 15(2): 1128-1134 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3615-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 08 July 2021

Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of g-C3N4 catalyst via lowering the Fermi level of co-catalyst

Show Author's Information Hairui Cai1,  Bin Wang1( ),  Laifei Xiong1,  Jinglei Bi1,  Hanjing Hao1,  Xiaojing Yu3,  Chao Li4,  Jiamei Liu4,  Shengchun Yang1,2( )
MOE Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Key Laboratory of Shaanxi for Advanced Materials and Mesoscopic PhysicsState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Physics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China
Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Performance ImprovementXi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China
School of Materials Science and EngineeringXi'an University of TechnologyXi'an710048China
Instrument Analysis Center of Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityXi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China
Keywords:
band bending, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, Schottky heterojunction, surface reactions, Fermi level
Topics:
Photocatalysis
Cite this article:
Cai H, Wang B, Xiong L, et al. Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of g-C3N4 catalyst via lowering the Fermi level of co-catalyst. Nano Research, 2022, 15(2): 1128-1134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3615-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The photocatalytic performances are highly dependent on the charge separation and surface reaction kinetics of photocatalysts. Aiming at figuring out the effects of co-catalyst with the lower Fermi level on photocatalytic activity, we tuned the Fermi level of Pt nanoparticles on g-C3N4(GCN) by introducing Co atom. Experimental results show that lowering the Fermi level of co-catalyst does not alter light absorption of GCN due to the invariable structure. Besides, Pt3Co with a lower Fermi level contributes less positive influence on charge separation in GCN due to an opposite effect from the stronger electron-trap ability of Pt3Co and increased band bending in GCN-Pt3Co. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that GCN-Pt3Co has faster surface reaction kinetics than GCN-Pt, owing to easier dissociation of H2O molecules and faster desorption of H* on Pt3Co. Consequently, GCN-Pt3Co exhibits an excellent H2 evolution rate with 2.91 mmol·g-1·h-1, which 2.67 times that of GCN-Pt.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of g-C3N4 catalyst via lowering the Fermi level of co-catalyst

Show Author's information Hairui Cai1, Bin Wang1( ), Laifei Xiong1, Jinglei Bi1, Hanjing Hao1, Xiaojing Yu3, Chao Li4, Jiamei Liu4, Shengchun Yang1,2( )
MOE Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Key Laboratory of Shaanxi for Advanced Materials and Mesoscopic PhysicsState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Physics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China
Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Performance ImprovementXi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China
School of Materials Science and EngineeringXi'an University of TechnologyXi'an710048China
Instrument Analysis Center of Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityXi'an Jiaotong University, No. 28 West Xianning RoadXi'an710049China

Abstract

The photocatalytic performances are highly dependent on the charge separation and surface reaction kinetics of photocatalysts. Aiming at figuring out the effects of co-catalyst with the lower Fermi level on photocatalytic activity, we tuned the Fermi level of Pt nanoparticles on g-C3N4(GCN) by introducing Co atom. Experimental results show that lowering the Fermi level of co-catalyst does not alter light absorption of GCN due to the invariable structure. Besides, Pt3Co with a lower Fermi level contributes less positive influence on charge separation in GCN due to an opposite effect from the stronger electron-trap ability of Pt3Co and increased band bending in GCN-Pt3Co. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that GCN-Pt3Co has faster surface reaction kinetics than GCN-Pt, owing to easier dissociation of H2O molecules and faster desorption of H* on Pt3Co. Consequently, GCN-Pt3Co exhibits an excellent H2 evolution rate with 2.91 mmol·g-1·h-1, which 2.67 times that of GCN-Pt.

Keywords: band bending, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, Schottky heterojunction, surface reactions, Fermi level

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 29 March 2021
Revised: 20 May 2021
Accepted: 21 May 2021
Published: 08 July 2021
Issue date: February 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2017YFE0193900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51802255), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Nos. 2021GXLH-Z-O and 2020JZ-02), the project of Innovative Team of Shaanxi Province (2020TD-001), the China Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the World-Class Universities (Disciplines) and the Characteristic Development Guidance Funds for the Central Universities. We thank Liqun Wang, Xiaojing Zhang and Jiao Li for the help of data analyses, and we also thank the characterization support, such as TEM, UV-vis, EDS, XPS, time-resolved PL, and steady-state PL, from the Instrument Analysis Center of Xi'an Jiaotong University. DFT calculations were performed using the HPC Platform of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

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