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Nano Research 2023, 16(4): 5864-5872 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3744-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 16 July 2021

van der Waals type II carbon nitride homojunctions for visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Show Author's Information Xiaojie Li1,2,§,  Panpan Zhang1,§,  Huayang Zhang1,  Wenjie Tian1,  Yangyang Yang1,  Kunsheng Hu1,  Dechao Chen3,  Qin Li3,  Xiaoguang Duan1,  Hongqi Sun4( ),  Shaobin Wang1( )
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia

§ Xiaojie Li and Panpan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
photocatalyst, carbon nitride, hydrogen evolution, van der Waals junction, type II junction
Cite this article:
Li X, Zhang P, Zhang H, et al. van der Waals type II carbon nitride homojunctions for visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Nano Research, 2023, 16(4): 5864-5872. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3744-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (PC-HER) provides a solution to energy crisis and environmental pollution. Herein, different graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)-based van der Waals (vdW) type II homojunctions have been fabricated and g-C3N4/K-doped g-C3N4 nanosheets have an outstanding PC-HER rate of 1,243 μmol·h−1·g−1 under visible light, higher than that of bulk g-C3N4, doped g-C3N4 nanosheets, and mixed nanosheets. The enhanced PC-HER performance can be ascribed to the cooperative effects of the shortened bandgap, enlarged specific surface area, matched type II energy band structure, “face to face” vdW charge interaction, and peculiarly partite positions of the conduction and valence bands in different layers. Besides, the type II junctions were found superior to binary type II junction. This study highlights the synergistic effect of different strategies in improving the PC-HER capacities of g-C3N4, especially the application of particular vdW junctions, and provides new insights to the structures and mechanism.


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About this article

van der Waals type II carbon nitride homojunctions for visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Show Author's information Xiaojie Li1,2,§, Panpan Zhang1,§, Huayang Zhang1, Wenjie Tian1, Yangyang Yang1, Kunsheng Hu1, Dechao Chen3, Qin Li3, Xiaoguang Duan1, Hongqi Sun4( ), Shaobin Wang1( )
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia

§ Xiaojie Li and Panpan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (PC-HER) provides a solution to energy crisis and environmental pollution. Herein, different graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)-based van der Waals (vdW) type II homojunctions have been fabricated and g-C3N4/K-doped g-C3N4 nanosheets have an outstanding PC-HER rate of 1,243 μmol·h−1·g−1 under visible light, higher than that of bulk g-C3N4, doped g-C3N4 nanosheets, and mixed nanosheets. The enhanced PC-HER performance can be ascribed to the cooperative effects of the shortened bandgap, enlarged specific surface area, matched type II energy band structure, “face to face” vdW charge interaction, and peculiarly partite positions of the conduction and valence bands in different layers. Besides, the type II junctions were found superior to binary type II junction. This study highlights the synergistic effect of different strategies in improving the PC-HER capacities of g-C3N4, especially the application of particular vdW junctions, and provides new insights to the structures and mechanism.

Keywords: photocatalyst, carbon nitride, hydrogen evolution, van der Waals junction, type II junction

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 09 April 2021
Revised: 02 July 2021
Accepted: 15 July 2021
Published: 16 July 2021
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

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

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Australian Research Council (No. DP170104264). The authors acknowledge the technical supports from the Australian Synchrotron, Victoria, Australia, part of ANSTO. The simulations were performed on resources provided by the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia.

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