Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (7): 1436-1445.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201704076

Special Issue: Special Issue for Highly Cited Researchers

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Incorporation of N-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide into Pyridine-Copolymerized g-C3N4 for Greatly Enhanced H2 Photocatalytic Evolution

Ruo-Lin CHENG1,2,Xi-Xiong JIN1,2,Xiang-Qian FAN1,2,Min WANG1,2,Jian-Jian TIAN1,2,Ling-Xia ZHANG1,2,*(),Jian-Lin SHI1,2,*()   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstruture, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, P. R. China
    2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China
  • Received:2016-12-27 Published:2017-05-31
  • Contact: Ling-Xia ZHANG,Jian-Lin SHI E-mail:zhlingxia@mail.sic.ac.cn;jlshi@mail.sic.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    the State Key Program for Basic Research of China(2013CB933200)

Abstract:

Here, we fabricated a pyridine-copolymerized g-C3N4 by a novel and cost-effective approach based on Schiff-base chemistry. Thus produced g-C3N4 showed significantly enhanced and stable visible-light photocatalytic H2 evolution performance compared to pristine g-C3N4 obtained from urea. Subsequently, we constructed a composite of pyridine-modified g-C3N4 and N-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) by facile one-pot calcination to elevate the photocatalytic efficiency further. The peak H2 production rate achieved using this composite was 304 μmol·h-1, about 11.7 and 3.1 times as those obtained using pure g-C3N4 and pyridine-modified g-C3N4, respectively. In addition to enhanced visible light absorbance and enlarged surface area, the promoted separation, transfer, and surface reactivity of photogenerated charge carriers by the pyridine ring as intramolecular electron acceptor and N-rGO as "electron-transfer activation region" are considered responsible for the remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Key words: Photocatalysis, Graphitic carbon nitride, Copolymerization, Hydrogen evolution, Nanocomposite