Polymeric carbon nitride (CN) has recently emerged as a novel metal-free semiconductor due to its unique electronic structure, wide availability, and promising applications in photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion. However, few works regarding CN photoelectrode optimization such as by minimization of unwanted grain boundary effects have been reported, which would greatly influence the photoelectrochemcial conversion efficiency. Herein, three general ways of preparing CN photoelectrode are presented and compared, including drop-casting of CN particles, or further blendeding with Nafion or PEDOT-PSS as the binder. In addition, the influences of CN particle sizes (0.5, 1.1, and 3.2 μm) and the film thickness (i.e., the loading amount) to the overall photoelectrochemcial activity were also evaluated in detail. As a result, when PEDOT-PSS acted as binder, CN particles with size of 0.5 μm and an optimal loading amount (2.4 mg/cm(2)) were adopted; the as-prepared CN photoelectrode had much superior photoelectrochemical activity than all other counterparts. Therefore, this study would pave the way for preparing CN photoelectrode of superior quality so as to promote CN materials to be better applied in solar fuel and sensing applications.
Keywords: binder; carbon nitride; drop-casting; grain boundaries effects; photoelectrochemistry; photoelectrode optimization.