Efficient upconverting carbon nitride nanotubes for near-infrared-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production

Yuxiang Zhu; Xianlin Zheng; Yiqing Lu; Xiaoxia Yang; Amanj Kheradmand; Yijiao Jiang

doi:10.1039/c9nr05276c

Efficient upconverting carbon nitride nanotubes for near-infrared-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production

Nanoscale. 2019 Nov 14;11(42):20274-20283. doi: 10.1039/c9nr05276c. Epub 2019 Oct 18.

Authors

Yuxiang Zhu¹, Xianlin Zheng², Yiqing Lu¹, Xiaoxia Yang¹, Amanj Kheradmand¹, Yijiao Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. yijiao.jiang@mq.edu.au.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. xianlin.zheng@mq.edu.au.

PMID: 31626264
DOI: 10.1039/c9nr05276c

Abstract

We report a facile chemical technique for synthesizing nanotube-based hybrid materials for near-infrared-driven photocatalytic hydrogen (H₂) production. Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), NaYF₄:Yb,Tm,Gd (NYFG) and NaYF₄:Yb,Tm (NYF), were engineered on C₃N₄ nanotubes (C₃N₄ NTs) separately to construct heterojunction structures. With a UCNP loading content of 15 wt%, the NYFG/C₃N₄ NT heterojunction exhibits the highest H₂ generation rate of 311.6 μmol g^-1 with an apparent quantum efficiency of 0.80 ‰, about 1.4 times higher than that of the NYF/C₃N₄ NT nanocomposite under 980 nm laser irradiation. Comprehensive characterization reveals that the enhanced photocatalytic performance of the Gd doped nanostructure is attributed to the synergistic effect, stronger interaction, higher emission intensities, and faster charge transfer between the UCNPs and C₃N₄ NTs. Moreover, the steady-state and dynamic fluorescence spectra indicate that the energy from NYFG NPs was transferred to C₃N₄ NTs via a fluorescence-resonance energy-transfer process. Our work demonstrates the potential of developing near-infrared-responsive photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications.