Preparation of Heterojunctions Based on Cs3Bi2Br9 Nanocrystals and g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

María Medina-Llamas; Andrea Speltini; Antonella Profumo; Francesca Panzarea; Antonella Milella; Francesco Fracassi; Andrea Listorti; Lorenzo Malavasi

doi:10.3390/nano13020263

Preparation of Heterojunctions Based on Cs₃Bi₂Br₉ Nanocrystals and g-C₃N₄ Nanosheets for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Jan 7;13(2):263. doi: 10.3390/nano13020263.

Authors

María Medina-Llamas^{1

2}, Andrea Speltini², Antonella Profumo², Francesca Panzarea³, Antonella Milella³, Francesco Fracassi^{3

4}, Andrea Listorti³, Lorenzo Malavasi²

Affiliations

¹ Unidad Académica Preparatoria, Plantel II, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas 98068, Mexico.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Bari "Aldo Moro" via Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy.
⁴ National Research Council, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Nanotechnology (CNR-NANOTEC), 70125 Bari, Italy.

Abstract

Heterojunctions based on metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are promising systems for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we coupled Cs₃Bi₂Br₉ nanocrystals (NCs), obtained by wet ball milling synthesis, with g-C₃N₄ nanosheets (NSs), produced by thermal oxidation of bulk g-C₃N_4, in air. These methods are reproducible, inexpensive and easy to scale up. Heterojunctions with different loadings of Cs₃Bi₂Br₉ NCs were fully characterised and tested for the HER. A relevant improvement of H₂ production with respect to pristine carbon nitride was achieved at low NCs levels reaching values up to about 4600 µmol g^-1 h^-1. This work aims to provide insights into the synthesis of inexpensive and high-performing heterojunctions using MHP for photocatalytic applications.

Keywords: ball milling; carbon nitride; hydrogen evolution; lead-free perovskites; perovskites; photocatalysis.

Abstract

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