Precursor-reforming strategy induced g-C3N4 microtubes with spatial anisotropic charge separation established by conquering hydrogen bond for enhanced photocatalytic H2-production performance

Huinan Che; Guangbo Che; Pengjie Zhou; Ning Song; Chunxue Li; Chunmei Li; Chunbo Liu; Xiaoteng Liu; Hongjun Dong

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.106

Precursor-reforming strategy induced g-C₃N₄ microtubes with spatial anisotropic charge separation established by conquering hydrogen bond for enhanced photocatalytic H₂-production performance

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Jul 1:547:224-233. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.106. Epub 2019 Apr 1.

Authors

Huinan Che¹, Guangbo Che², Pengjie Zhou³, Ning Song⁴, Chunxue Li², Chunmei Li⁴, Chunbo Liu⁵, Xiaoteng Liu⁴, Hongjun Dong⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, China; Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
² Key Laboratory of Preparation and Applications of Environmental Friendly Materials, Jilin Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130103, China.
³ School of Materials and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, China.
⁴ Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁵ Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: liucb@ujs.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: donghongjun6698@aliyun.com.

PMID: 30954766
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.106

Abstract

Precursor-reforming strategy induced graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) with different morphologies for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen (H₂) evolution activity is highly desirable. Herein, g-C₃N₄ microtubes (mg-C₃N₄) with adjustable closure degree of microtube orifice and spatial anisotropic charge separation are established by conquering hydrogen bond during thermally exfoliate precursor. Compared to the bulk g-C₃N₄ (bg-C₃N₄) and ultrathin g-C₃N₄ (ug-C₃N₄), the tubular structure endows mg-C₃N₄ with spatial anisotropic charge separation that accelerates transfer of charge carriers. As expected, the photocatalytic H₂ evolution (PHE) activity of mg-C₃N₄ has been obviously enhanced. Particularly, the mg-C₃N₄-24 shows the best PHE activity (957.9 μmol h^-1 g^-1), which is over 18.72 and 3.77 times higher than the bg-C₃N₄ and ug-C₃N₄, respectively. In addition, selective photo-deposition experiment results reveal a charge carriers migration behavior that photoproduction electrons migrate to the outer shell and holes prefer to move onto the inner shell of mg-C₃N₄, thus achieving efficient spatial anisotropic charge separation. We firmly believe that the work presents significant advancement for the design of other materials by precursor-reforming strategy.

Keywords: Charge carriers; PHE; Precursor-reforming; Spatial anisotropic; mg-C(3)N(4).