H2 production by solar photoreforming of plastic materials using SiC-g-C3N4composites

Abstract

The photoreforming of polyethylene terephthalate and bisphenol A was here investigated using uncommon photocatalysts (SiC-g-C3N4 composites). The results showed as the addition of small amounts of g-C3N4 on SiC promoted an efficient charge carriers separation and a good interaction between the two materials, leading to a H2 production rate of 18 and 12 μmolH2/gcat∙h for the photoreforming of polyethylene terephthalate and bisphenol A, respectively. The accurate selection of different g-C3N4 precursors, combined with the appropriate control of the key reaction parameters (pH and plastic materials pretreatments) allowed to optimize the performance of the SiC-g-C3N4 composites for the photocatalytic H2 production.