Surface modification of graphitic carbon nitride nanoparticles with B, O and S doping/carbon vacancy for efficient dehydrogenation of sodium borohydride in methanol

Abstract

Herein, the surface properties of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) with sulphur(S), boron (B) and oxygen (O) dopants were improved. The heteroatom-doped metal-free GCN exhibited both rich surface functional groups and a carbon defect structure. These metal-free catalysts were used to obtain hydrogen (H2) from the sodium borohydride (SB) methanolysis for the first time. Compared to GCN, S, B, and O doped GCN catalyst obtained showed a 2.2-fold improvement in H2 production. HGR value obtained with B, O and S doped GCN (10 mg) via SB of 2.5% was 9166 ml min −1g−1. XPS, SEM-EDX, TEM, FTIR, and XRD analyses were used for the structural properties of catalysts. The activation energy (Ea) for B, O and S doped GCN was 28.89 kJ mol−1.