Abstract
The intrinsic disadvantages of pristine graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) significantly restrict its applications in photocatalysis field. Hence, we have demonstrated facile thermal copolymerization and in situ photodeposition methods to fabricate a novel Au/phosphorus-doped g-C3N4 (Au/P-g-C3N4) photocatalyst. The results showed that phosphorus was doped into the structure of g-C3N4 and that the surface deposition of gold was successfully accomplished. The H2 generation rate of the optimal Au/P-g-C3N4 is 8.4 times compared with the pristine g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity is due to the synergic effect between gold induced surface plasmon resonance and the modified structural and electronic properties of the g-C3N4 induced by the phosphorus dopant.
Highlights
Photocatalytic hydrogen (H2 ) generation using solar energy is the most promising strategy to solve the energy crisis [1,2,3,4]
The crystal structure of as-prepared g-C3 N4, P-g-C3 N4, 3% Au/g-C3 N4 and different Au/P-g-C3 N4 samples were analyzed by X ray powder diffraction (XRD)
For P-g-C3 N4, the above peaks were still maintained. This meant the phosphorus doping process did not change the structure of g-C3 N4
Summary
Photocatalytic hydrogen (H2 ) generation using solar energy is the most promising strategy to solve the energy crisis [1,2,3,4]. G-C3 N4 , is a non-metal polymer semiconductor that has shown much promise as a visible light photocatalyst for a range of applications from H2 generation to organic pollutant digestion [9] It has a band gap of about 2.6 eV (urea thermal polymerization) [10]. Some important problems still limit the application of g-C3 N4 in the photocatalytic field, such as, the narrow absorption region, the poor surface area and low separation rate of the photogenerated electron-hole [13] Many strategies such as nonmetal or metal doping, coupling with noble metal materials (Pt, Au, Ag) or carbon materials, introducing vacancy have been employed [14,15,16,17]
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