Anionic donor-acceptor conjugated polymer dots/g-C3N4 nanosheets heterojunction: High efficiency and excellent stability for co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Wei Zhou; Shaolin Lu; Xudong Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.037

Anionic donor-acceptor conjugated polymer dots/g-C₃N₄ nanosheets heterojunction: High efficiency and excellent stability for co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 1):912-921. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.037. Epub 2021 Oct 12.

Authors

Wei Zhou¹, Shaolin Lu², Xudong Chen³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China; Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China. Electronic address: zhouwei25@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China. Electronic address: cescxd@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

PMID: 34785466
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.037

Abstract

Herein, we have assembled an anionic donor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polyelectrolyte dots (Pdots), based on bithiophene units-containing backbone and sulfonate modified side chain (PCP-2F-Li), with porous g-C₃N₄ nanosheets (CNNS) into a new 0D/2D heterojunction (PCP-2F-Li Pdots/CNNS). The well-matched energy levels of PCP-2F-Li and CNNS and the strong electron-donating sulfinates in PCP-2F-Li can significantly accelerate the interfacial electron transfer in heterojunction, while the strong hydrophilicity of PCP-2F-Li can improve the interface wetting and promote the photocatalytic water-splitting. As such, PCP-2F-Li Pdots/CNNS can be used for efficient co-catalyst-free water splitting with a hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of 1932.1 μmol·h^-1·g^-1 over 6 runs, which is 1.85 and 2.29 times of hydrophobic F8T2 Pdots/CNNS and Pt-assisted CNNS, respectively. The apparent quantum yield (AQY) of PCP-2F-Li Pdots/CNNS can reach 7.87 %, 7.73 % and 5.60 % at 420, 450 and 475 nm, respectively. The findings highlight a new type of the Pdots-assisted heterojunctions for high-efficiency and durable co-catalyst-free water splitting.

Keywords: Anionic conjugated polymer dots; Co-catatlyst-free photocatalysis; Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets; Photocatalysis stability.