Sulfur and carbon co-doped g-C₃N₄ microtubes with enhanced photocatalytic H₂ production activity

Abstract

Metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has captured significant attention as a low-cost and efficient hydrogen production photocatalyst through. Effectively regulating the microstructure and accelerating the separation of photogenerated carriers remain crucial strategies for promoting the photocatalytic performance of this material. Herein, a novel sulfur–carbon co-doped g-C₃N₄ (SCCN) hierarchical microtubules filled with abundant nanosheets inside by thermal polymerization is reported. Numerous nanosheets create abundant pores and cavities inside the SCCN microtubes, thereby increasing the specific surface area of g-C₃N₄ and providing sufficient reactant attachment sites. Besides, the hierarchical structure of SCCN microtubules strengthens the reflection and scattering of light, and the utilization of visible light is favorably affected. More importantly, co-doping S and C has greatly improved the photocatalytic performance of graphitic carbon nitride, optimized the band gap structure and enhanced the photogenerated carrier splitting. Consequently, the SCCN exhibits a remarkable photocatalytic H₂ evolution rate of 4868 μmol/(g·h). This work demonstrates the potential of multi-nonmetal doped g-C₃N₄ as the ideal photocatalyst for H₂ evolution.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

carbon nitride / photocatalysis / hydrogen production

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22078057), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program of Joint Fund, Grant No. U22A20435), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2242023K5001), and the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of Carbon Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20220001).

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-023-0899-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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