Abstract
A treatment of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) with concentrated nitric acid imparts GCN with the photocatalytic activity in hydrogen evolution from aqueous solutions of hydrazine hydrate, unsymmetric dimethylhydrazine (DMH) and hydrazinium sulfate under illumination with the UV light and in the presence of a Pd/SiO2 co-catalyst. The rate of photocatalytic water reduction was found to be maximal in the presence of 3–5 M DMH and 12–14 M hydrazine hydrate and comparable to the hydrogen evolution rate in similar systems based on TiO2 Evonik P25.The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the activated GCN revealed that the acid treatment results in the elimination of some of the nitrogen atoms in the heptazine building blocks of the GCN and formation of carboxylic groups, the modification extent increasing with an increase of both duration of the acid treatment and the GCN synthesis temperature.The activation effect observed after the acid treatment of the GCN is assumed to originate from the participation of the introduced defects in the trapping and interfacial transfer of the photogenerated charge carriers. The maximal photoactivity was observed for the activated GCN produced at 500 °C followed by a 2-h contact with the concentrated HNO3.
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