The
development of new catalytic materials is conducive to solving
the global energy crisis and environmental problems. In this work,
multipurpose catalyst unsubstituted iron(II) phthalocyanine/carbon
nitride nanosheet (FePc/CN) nanocomposites were prepared by utilizing
concentrated sulfuric acid as an ideal solvent of CN and unsubstituted
FePc. Such FePc/CN nanocomposites exhibited improved photo/electrocatalytic
activity which was enhanced reciprocally: the photocatalytic activity
of CN was promoted by FePc anchoring, and the electrocatalytic activity
of FePc was improved by CN doping. The photocatalytic performance
of FePc/CN–0.3 nanocomposites was about 6.4 and 1.7 times as
high as FePc and CN, which was attributed to two reasons: (1) the
anchoring FePc on CN extended the visible-light absorption region
of CN, (2) the electron transfer from excited FePc to CN hindered
charge carriers recombination and thus enhanced the photoinduced carrier
separation efficiency. Relative to FePc and CN, the onset potential
of FePc/CN–0.3 was positively shifted by 52 and 174 mV, such
higher oxygen reduction reaction activity was due to the uniform dispersion
of FePc on the supporting material CN without aggregation, which led
to improved conductivity and stability of nanocomposites. This approach
will contribute to an inexpensive and convenient synthetic strategy
of transitionmetal-based nanostructures for functional applications
in photovoltaic, electrochemical, and catalytic fields.
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