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Zinc-Deficiency Induced g-C3N4 Nanosheets: Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation Study and Carrier Dynamics

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Abstract

g-C3N4 has great application prospect in the field of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation owing to the advantages of abundant raw materials, low toxicity, low consumption, high efficiency and stability. However, the low surface-active site and high carrier recombination rate limit their nitrogen fixation activities. Defect regulation is one of the effective methods to improve photocatalytic nitrogen fixation activity. In this paper, g-C3N4 nanosheets are successfully modified by ZnS containing zinc vacancy, which enhanced the carrier transport capacity and active site of g-C3N4 for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. Thus, without any sacrificial agent, an optimized nitrogen fixation activity of 2.1 µmol·h−1 (105 µmol·h−1·g−1) is achieved with the irradiation of visible light, which presents obvious advantages among the latest reported g-C3N4 related photocatalysts. The morphology, structure and photocatalytic carrier dynamics of the photocatalyst are studied by a series of experimental characterizations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Scientific Research Funds project of Education Department of Liaoning Province (Grant No. L2019012), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1904195, U1704140), the Key Research Programs in Universities of Henan Province (Grant No. 20A150031), Science and Technology Innovation Talent Support Program of Henan Province (Grant No. 19HASTIT034), Science and Technology Research Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 202102210055).

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Author notes

  1. Yafang Qi and Yifan Chen have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun, 113001, Liaoning, China

    Yafang Qi, Rui Wang & Daosheng Liu

  2. Henan Engineering Center of New Energy Battery Materials, Henan D&A Engineering Center of Advanced Battery Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu, 476000, China

    Lijing Wang, Fuli Zhang & Peng Qu

  3. College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Lijing Wang & Qi Shen

  4. Department of Applied Physics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Yifan Chen

  5. Chaoyang Normal College, Chaoyang, Liaoning, China

    Peng Qu

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  1. Yafang Qi
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Correspondence to Lijing Wang, Peng Qu or Daosheng Liu.

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Qi, Y., Chen, Y., Wang, R. et al. Zinc-Deficiency Induced g-C3N4 Nanosheets: Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation Study and Carrier Dynamics. Catal Lett 151, 1546–1555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-020-03415-5

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