Enhanced Driving Force and Charge Separation Efficiency of Protonated g‑C3N4 for Photocatalytic O2 Evolution

Enhanced Driving Force and Charge Separation Efficiency of Protonated g‑C3N4 for Photocatalytic O2 Evolution

Photocatalysts based on g-C3N4 by loading cocatalysts or constructing heterojunctions have shown great potential in solar-driven water oxidation. However, the intrinsic drawbacks of g-C3N4, such as poor mass diffusion and charge separation efficiency, remain as the bottleneck to achieve highly effic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS catalysis 2015-11, Vol.5 (11), p.6973-6979
Main Authors: Ye, Chen, Li, Jia-Xin, Li, Zhi-Jun, Li, Xu-Bing, Fan, Xiang-Bing, Zhang, Li-Ping, Chen, Bin, Tung, Chen-Ho, Wu, Li-Zhu
Format: Article
Language:eng
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Summary:Photocatalysts based on g-C3N4 by loading cocatalysts or constructing heterojunctions have shown great potential in solar-driven water oxidation. However, the intrinsic drawbacks of g-C3N4, such as poor mass diffusion and charge separation efficiency, remain as the bottleneck to achieve highly efficient water oxidation. Here we report a simple protonation method to improve the activity of g-C3N4. Studies using valence band X-ray photoelectron spectra and steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy reveal that the promotion of catalytic ability originates from the higher thermodynamical driving force and longer-lived charge separation state, which may provide guidance in designing efficient polymeric semiconductor photocatalysts with desirable kinetics for water oxidation.
ISSN:2155-5435
2155-5435