Abstract
Energy crises and environmental pollution are two serious threats to modern society. To overcome these problems, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets were fabricated and functionalized with SnO2 nanoparticles to produce H2 from water splitting and degrade 2-chlorophenol under visible light irradiation. The fabricated samples showed enhanced photocatalytic activities for both H2 evolution and pollutant degradation as compared to bare g-C3N4 and SnO2. These enhanced photoactivities are attributed to the fast charge separation as the excited electrons transfer from g-C3N4 to the conduction band of SnO2. This enhanced charge separation has been confirmed by the photoluminescence spectra, steady state surface photovoltage spectroscopic measurement, and formed hydroxyl radicals. It is believed that this work will provide a feasible route to synthesize photocatalysts for improved energy production and environmental purification.
Highlights
IntroductionThe photocatalysts have shown their remarkable influence in the production of H2 from water, production of hydrocarbon fuels from CO2, and removal of pollutants from air and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production and Pollutant Degradation wastewater with minimum cost and least working labor (Singh et al, 2017; Li et al, 2018a,b; Qu et al, 2018; Ullah et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019a)
Exhaustion of hydrocarbon fuels and addition of toxic and hazardous materials from agricultural, medicinal, dyes, and cosmetic industries to the environment have resulted in increased pressure on the scientific community to address these problems adequately
The photocatalysts have shown their remarkable influence in the production of H2 from water, production of hydrocarbon fuels from CO2, and removal of pollutants from air and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production and Pollutant Degradation wastewater with minimum cost and least working labor (Singh et al, 2017; Li et al, 2018a,b; Qu et al, 2018; Ullah et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019a)
Summary
The photocatalysts have shown their remarkable influence in the production of H2 from water, production of hydrocarbon fuels from CO2, and removal of pollutants from air and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production and Pollutant Degradation wastewater with minimum cost and least working labor (Singh et al, 2017; Li et al, 2018a,b; Qu et al, 2018; Ullah et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019a) Different photocatalysts such as TiO2, ZnO, and ZrO2 have been widely utilized, there are some typical problems such as activeness only under ultraviolet (UV) light and fast recombination of photogenerated charges (Raizada et al, 2017; Qi et al, 2018a,b, 2020a). Low surface area and poor excited charge separation capability of this photocatalyst is still a marked question on its utilization for fuel production and organic oxidation (Dong et al, 2019; Liu Y. et al, 2019; Zhu et al, 2019c; Qi et al, 2020b) These problems need to be tackled in future generation of semiconductor photocatalysis
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