Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production by creating isotype heterojunctions and single-atom active sites in highly-crystallized carbon nitride.

Carbon nitride-based photocatalysts hold an enormous potential in producing hydrogen. A strategy to simultaneously create isotype heterojunctions and active sites in highly-crystallized carbon nitride is anticipated to significantly boost the photocatalytic activity, but is yet to be realized. Herein, we find that cobalt salt added in the ionothermal synthesis can promote the phase transition of heptazine-based crystalline carbon nitride (CCN) to triazine-based poly(triazine imide) (PTI), rendering the creation of single-atom cobalt coordinated isotype CCN/PTI heterojunction. Co-CCN/PTI exhibits an appreciable apparent quantum yield of 20.88% at 425 nm for photocatalytic hydrogen production with a rate achieving 3538 µmol h-1 g-1 (λ > 420 nm), which is 4.8 times that of CCN and 27.6 times that of PTI. The high photocatalytic activity is attributed to the Type II isotype highly-crystallized CCN/PTI heterojunction for promoting charge carrier migration, and the single-atom Co sites for accelerating surface oxidation reaction.

Single-atom nickel terminating sp2 and sp3 nitride in polymeric carbon nitride for visible-light photocatalytic overall water splitting.

Polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) has been widely used as a metal-free photocatalyst for solar hydrogen generation from water. However, rapid charge carrier recombination and sluggish water catalysis kinetics have greatly limited its photocatalytic performance for overall water splitting. Herein, a single-atom Ni terminating agent was introduced to coordinate with the heptazine units of PCN to create new hybrid orbitals. Both theoretical calculation and experimental evidence revealed that the new hybrid orbitals synergistically broadened visible light absorption via a metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) process, and accelerated the separation and transfer of photoexcited electrons and holes. The obtained single-atom Ni terminated PCN (PCNNi), without an additional cocatalyst loading, realized efficient photocatalytic overall water splitting into easily-separated gas-product H2 and liquid-product H2O2 under visible light, with evolution rates reaching 26.6 and 24.0 µmol g-1 h-1, respectively. It was indicated that single-atom Ni and the neighboring C atom served as water oxidation and reduction active sites, respectively, for overall water splitting via a two-electron reaction pathway.