Abstract
Polymeric carbon nitride has been considered to be an active photocathode for catalyzing the generation of H 2 through water splitting. However, the application of this material in photoelectrochemical cells remains a challenge owing to the intrinsically sluggish kinetics of charge separation. Herein, a facile salt-melt method is developed for fabricating Cu-modified polymeric carbon nitride as an effective photocathode material for solar water splitting. Various characterization data confirm that Cu-modified polymeric carbon nitride contains both free CuCl, derived from precursors, and coordinated Cu species incorporated into the polymeric carbon nitride, which can generate type-II heterojunctions. This special heterojunction energy structure contributes to a significantly enhanced photocurrent density for hydrogen evolution. The proposed strategy for synthesizing the Cu-modified polymeric carbon nitride can stimulate research for the development of highly efficient visible-light-active photocathodes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 866-872 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | ChemSusChem |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 Feb 21 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:X. Hu acknowledges the support by the Recruitment Program of Global Young Experts (Thousand Youth Talents Plan). J. H. Park acknowledges the support by the NRF of Korea Grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2014M3A7B4051747, 2016M3D3A1A01913254, 2015M1A2A2074663).
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Environmental Chemistry
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Materials Science(all)
- Energy(all)