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Isotype junctioned nanotubes and nanosheets of g-C3N4 for enhanced visible-light driven photocatalytic H2O2 production

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Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has emerged as a rising star for photocatalytic H2O2 production, but is still challenging to achieve high activity because of insufficient visible-light response, rapid charge recombination and low-specific surface area. Herein, we report the construction of g-C3N4/g-C3N4 isotype junction composed of nanotubes and nanosheets by thermal polymerization treatment of the mixture of urea and thiourea. It demonstrated significantly enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity of H2O2 production (785 μmol g−1 h−1) over its counterpart pure C3N4 moieties derived from urea or thiourea individually. The excellent photocatalytic performance can be explained by the synergistic effects of electronic band alignments and nanostructures. Type-II band alignment, nitrogen vacancies and intimate interface contact were developed between the nanotubes and nanosheets, which promoted visible-light response, separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, and charge and mass transport. This work presents a potent example of designing isotype junctions with special nanostructures for enhancing H2O2 production performance of g-C3N4-based photocatalysts.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program of Hunan Province (S202010543031, 20201313192), the NSF of Hunan Province (2019JJ50206), and the Scientific Research Project of Hunan Education Department (19B230, 20A225).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Hunan Province for Advanced Carbon-Based Functional Materials, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Yunxiao Zhang, Mengfan Fang, Xiaorong Qian, Li Zhang, Pei Gu, Yu Liu & Haihua Yang

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Yunxiao Zhang, Mengfan Fang, Xiaorong Qian, Li Zhang, Pei Gu, Yu Liu & Haihua Yang

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  1. Yunxiao Zhang
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  2. Mengfan Fang
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  4. Li Zhang
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  6. Yu Liu
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Zhang, Y., Fang, M., Qian, X. et al. Isotype junctioned nanotubes and nanosheets of g-C3N4 for enhanced visible-light driven photocatalytic H2O2 production. Journal of Materials Research 36, 3495–3505 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-021-00392-2

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