Elevation in electrochemical energy storing capacity by Pd insertion in heptazine-based graphitic carbon nitride, extended for dye degradation: Experimental and computational assessment

Abstract

A series of Pd doped heptazine-graphitic carbon nitride (h-g-C3N4) as Pd/h-g-CN (PC composite) was fabricated by varying the amount of PdCl2 with an optimized amount of g-C3N4 (keeping static). The samples were investigated through advance and genuine characterization techniques. DFT computation was used as a strengthening tool for composite performance. The composite material showed remarkable energy storing capacity, particularly, PC9 composite exhibited a specific capacitance of 401.1F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s in 1 M H2SO4 with appealing cyclic stability (93.9 %) after 10,000 cycles. At 1 A/g, energy density and power density were 45.7 Wh/kg and 500.3 W/kg respectively. The Rs and Rct of PC9 were 1.10 Ω and 2.74 Ω respectively with n factor as 0.85. Meanwhile, photocatalytic activity was investigated, where PC9 has significant degradation efficiency (69.8 %) and the recyclability and reusability experiments were performed that showed 40 % as sustained composite even after 5 runs.