Gasparotto Alberto, Barreca Davide, Maccato Chiara, Pierobon Ermanno, Rizzi Gian Andrea
Department of Chemical Sciences, Padova University and INSTM, 35131 Padova, Italy.
CNR-ICMATE and INSTM, Department of Chemical Sciences, Padova University, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2025 Jun 21;15(13):960. doi: 10.3390/nano15130960.
Over the last decade, polymeric carbon nitrides (PCNs) have received exponentially growing attention as metal-free photocatalytic platforms for green energy generation and environmental remediation. Although PCNs can be easily synthesized from abundant precursors in a powdered form, progress in the field of photoelectrochemical applications requires effective methods for the fabrication of PCN films endowed with suitable mechanical stability and modular chemico-physical properties. In this context, as a proof-of-concept, we report herein on a simple and versatile chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) strategy for one-step PCN growth on porous Ni foam substrates, starting from melamine as a precursor compound. Interestingly, tailoring the reaction temperature enabled to control the condensation degree of PCN films from melem/melon hybrids to melon-like materials, whereas the use of different precursor amounts directly affected the mass and morphology of the obtained deposits. Altogether, such features had a remarkable influence on PCN electrochemical performances towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), yielding, for the best performing systems, Tafel slopes as low as ≈65 mV/dec and photocurrent density values of ≈1 mA/cm at 1.6 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE).
在过去十年中，聚合碳氮化物（PCNs）作为用于绿色能源生产和环境修复的无金属光催化平台，受到了指数级增长的关注。尽管PCNs可以很容易地由丰富的前体以粉末形式合成，但光电化学应用领域的进展需要有效的方法来制备具有合适机械稳定性和模块化化学物理性质的PCN薄膜。在此背景下，作为概念验证，我们在此报告一种简单通用的化学气相渗透（CVI）策略，用于以三聚氰胺为前体化合物，在多孔泡沫镍基底上一步生长PCN。有趣的是，调整反应温度能够控制PCN薄膜从蜜勒胺/蜜白胺混合物到类蜜白胺材料的缩合程度，而使用不同量的前体直接影响所得沉积物的质量和形态。总之，这些特性对PCN在析氧反应（OER）中的电化学性能有显著影响，对于性能最佳的体系，相对于可逆氢电极（RHE），在1.6 V时塔菲尔斜率低至约65 mV/dec，光电流密度值约为1 mA/cm² 。
