Ultrafast plasma method allows rapid immobilization of monatomic copper on carboxyl-deficient g-C3N4 for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Shuchang Xu; Zhihao Zhang; Daqian Wang; Junyang Lu; Ying Guo; Shifei Kang; Xijiang Chang

doi:10.3389/fchem.2022.972496

Ultrafast plasma method allows rapid immobilization of monatomic copper on carboxyl-deficient g-C₃N₄ for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Front Chem. 2022 Aug 26:10:972496. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2022.972496. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Shuchang Xu¹, Zhihao Zhang^{2

3}, Daqian Wang¹, Junyang Lu², Ying Guo^{1

4}, Shifei Kang^{2

5}, Xijiang Chang^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Yiming Filtration Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China.
⁴ Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Center of Ministry Education, Donghua University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Institute of Photochemistry and Photocatalyst, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Transition-metal monometallic photocatalysts have received extensive attention owing to the maximization of atomic utilization efficiency. However, in previous related works, single-atom loading and stability are generally low due to limited anchor sites and mechanisms. Recently, adding transition-metal monatomic sites to defective carbon nitrides has a good prospect, but there is still lack of diversity in defect structures and preparation techniques. Here, a strategy for preparing defect-type carbon-nitride-coupled monatomic copper catalysts by an ultrafast plasma method is reported. In this method, oxalic acid and commercial copper salt are used as a carboxyl defect additive and a copper source, respectively. Carbon nitride samples containing carboxyl defects and monatomic copper can be processed within 10 min by one-step argon plasma treatment. Infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance prove the existence of carboxyl defects. Spherical aberration electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation analysis confirm the existence of monatomic copper. The proportion of monatomic copper is relatively high, and the purity is high and very uniform. The Cu PCN as-prepared shows not only high photo-Fenton pollutant degradation ability but also high photocatalytic hydrogen evolution ability under visible light. In the photocatalytic reaction, the reversible change of Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ greatly promotes the separation and transmission of photogenerated carriers and improves the utilization of photoelectrons. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the optimized sample is 8.34 mmol g^-1·h^-1, which is 4.54 times that of the raw carbon nitride photocatalyst. The cyclic photo-Fenton experiment confirms the catalyst has excellent repeatability in a strong oxidation environment. The synergistic mechanism of the photocatalyst obtained by this plasma is the coordination of single-atom copper sites and carboxyl defect sites. The single copper atoms incorporated can act as an electron-rich active center, enhancing the h+ adsorption and reduction capacity of Cu PCN. At the same time, the carboxyl defect sites can form hydrogen bonds to stabilize the production of hydrogen atoms and subsequently convert them to hydrogen because of the unstable hydrogen bond structure. This plasma strategy is green, convenient, environment-friendly, and waste-free. More importantly, it has the potential for large-scale production, which brings a new way for the general preparation of high-quality monatomic catalysts.

Keywords: Cu-g-C3N4; carboxyl defect; plasma method; reactive metal-support interactions; single-atom catalyst (SAC).