Dong Qian, Chen Zhiwu, Zhao Bo, Zhang Yizeng, Lu Zhenya, Wang Xin, Li Jinliang, Chen Wei
School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 2):1951-1959. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.161. Epub 2021 Oct 29.
The effective conversion of sunlight into H by photocatalytic water splitting has emerged as the most promising strategy to alleviate the energy crisis. In this work, niobium pentoxide (NbO)/graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) type-II heterojunctions with high photocatalytic H evolution rate under both visible and simulated solar light are fabricated via a novel approach involving in situ 'hydrolysis/calcination' loading of NbO nanoparticles on the g-CN surface. After the optimisation, the NbO/g-CN heterojunctions with 5 wt% NbO content delivers high H evolution rates of 2.07 ± 0.03 and 6.77 ± 0.12 mmol g h under visible and simulated solar light exposure, respectively, which are 4.1 and 4.2 times superior to those of pure g-CN. According to the subsequent characterisations, the effective NbO/g-CN heterojunction offers sufficient contact interface, which is favourable for the efficient separation of photogenerated charges. In addition, the NbO/g-CN heterojunction possesses a large surface area, which contributes to the interfacial contact between photocatalyst and water. This work provides insights into the synthesis of novel g-CN-based hetero-photocatalysts with strong solar energy conversion capabilities.
通过光催化水分解将太阳光有效转化为氢气已成为缓解能源危机最具前景的策略。在这项工作中，通过一种新颖的方法，即在石墨相氮化碳（g-CN）表面原位“水解/煅烧”负载五氧化二铌（NbO）纳米颗粒，制备出了在可见光和模拟太阳光下均具有高光催化析氢速率的五氧化二铌（NbO）/石墨相氮化碳（g-CN）II型异质结。经过优化后，NbO含量为5 wt%的NbO/g-CN异质结在可见光和模拟太阳光照射下分别具有2.07±0.03和6.77±0.12 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹的高析氢速率，分别是纯g-CN的4.1倍和4.2倍。根据后续表征，有效的NbO/g-CN异质结提供了足够的接触界面，有利于光生电荷的有效分离。此外，NbO/g-CN异质结具有较大的表面积，这有助于光催化剂与水之间的界面接触。这项工作为合成具有强大太阳能转换能力的新型g-CN基异质光催化剂提供了见解。
