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Nano Research 2023, 16(4): 4524-4530 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3882-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 29 September 2021

Multiscale structural engineering of carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production

Show Author's Information Qing He1,  Bounxome Viengkeo1,  Xuan Zhao1,  Zhengyuan Qin2,  Jie Zhang1,  Xiaohan Yu1,  Yongpan Hu1,  Wei Huang1( ),  Yanguang Li1,3( )
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China
Keywords:
carbon nitride, oxygen reduction, multiscale structural engineering, photocatalytic H2O2 production
Cite this article:
He Q, Viengkeo B, Zhao X, et al. Multiscale structural engineering of carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production. Nano Research, 2023, 16(4): 4524-4530. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3882-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Carbon nitride (C3N4) holds great promise for photocatalytic H2O2 production from oxygen reduction. In spite of great research efforts, they still suffer from low catalytic efficiency primarily limited by the fast recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. In this work, we report the multiscale structural engineering of C3N4 to significantly improve its optoelectronic properties and consequently photocatalytic performance. The product consists of porous spheres with high surface areas, abundant nitrogen defects, and alkali metal doping. Under visible light irradiation, our catalyst shows a remarkable H2O2 production rate of 3,080 μmol·g−1·h−1, which is more than 10 times higher than that of bulk C3N4 and exceeds those of most other C3N4-based photocatalysts. Moreover, the catalyst exhibits great stability, and can continuously work for 15 h without obvious activity decay under visible light irradiation, eventually giving rise to a high H2O2 concentration of ca. 45 mM.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Multiscale structural engineering of carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production

Show Author's information Qing He1, Bounxome Viengkeo1, Xuan Zhao1, Zhengyuan Qin2, Jie Zhang1, Xiaohan Yu1, Yongpan Hu1, Wei Huang1( ), Yanguang Li1,3( )
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China

Abstract

Carbon nitride (C3N4) holds great promise for photocatalytic H2O2 production from oxygen reduction. In spite of great research efforts, they still suffer from low catalytic efficiency primarily limited by the fast recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. In this work, we report the multiscale structural engineering of C3N4 to significantly improve its optoelectronic properties and consequently photocatalytic performance. The product consists of porous spheres with high surface areas, abundant nitrogen defects, and alkali metal doping. Under visible light irradiation, our catalyst shows a remarkable H2O2 production rate of 3,080 μmol·g−1·h−1, which is more than 10 times higher than that of bulk C3N4 and exceeds those of most other C3N4-based photocatalysts. Moreover, the catalyst exhibits great stability, and can continuously work for 15 h without obvious activity decay under visible light irradiation, eventually giving rise to a high H2O2 concentration of ca. 45 mM.

Keywords: carbon nitride, oxygen reduction, multiscale structural engineering, photocatalytic H2O2 production

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 10 August 2021
Revised: 02 September 2021
Accepted: 11 September 2021
Published: 29 September 2021
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

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

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0204800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22002100), the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, and the 111 Project and Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices.

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