Surface defects in relation to surface compositions, morphology, and active sites play crucial roles in photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) material for highly reactive oxygen radicals production. Here, we report a high-efficiency carbon nitride supramolecular hybrid material prepared by patching the surface defects with inorganic clusters. Fe (III) {PO[WO(O)]} clusters have been noncovalently integrated on surface of g-CN, where the surface defects provide accommodation sites for these clusters and driving forces for self-assembly. During photocatalytic process, the activity of supramolecular hybrid is 1.53 times than pure g-CN for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and 2.26 times for Methyl Orange (MO) under the simulated solar light. Under the mediation of HO (50 mmol L), the activity increases to 6.52 times for RhB and 28.3 times for MO. The solid cluster active sites with high specific surface area (SSA) defect surface promoting the kinetics of hydroxide radicals production give rise to the extremely high photocatalytic activity. It exhibits recyclable capability and works in large-scale demonstration under the natural sunlight as well and interestingly the environmental temperature has little effects on the photocatalytic activity.

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Pulp concentration was increased, during preparation of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), in an effort to improve the efficiency of cellulase pretreatment. It was hypothesized that increased pulp concentration could possibly increase the interactions between cellulase and cellulose, therefore improving the cellulase pretreatment efficiency and benefiting MFC and its film properties. Results showed that higher pulp concentration enhanced the cellulase adsorption ratio from 70% to 90% for pulp concentrations of 2% and 10%, during the pretreatment process. While pulp concentration was changed from 2% to 10% during cellulase pretreatment, the specific area rose from 30.1 m 2 /g to 35.5 m 2 /g. Compared with the original eucalyptus pulp, the crystallinity degree of different pulp concentration was increased, presumably due to the enzymatic breakdown of amorphous cellulose. In addition, the aspect ratio of MFC rose from 19.1 to 35.5. Concurrently, MFC film properties showed better performance, as the elongation at break increased from 0.75% to 1.95%, tensile strength increased from 15.

The selective decomposition of formic acid (FA) traditionally needs to be carried out under high temperature with the noble metal-based catalysts. Meanwhile, it also encounters a separation of H2 and CO2 for pure H2 production. The photocatalytic FA dehydrogenation under mild conditions can meet a growing demand for sustainable H2 generation. Here, we reported a photocatalytic selective H2 release from FA decomposition at low temperature for pure H2 production by Pt/g-C3N4. Low-cost and easy-to-obtained urea was utilized to produce carbon nitride as the metal-free semiconductor photocatalyst, along with a photodeposition to obtain Pt/g-C3N4. The electrochemical evidences clearly demonstrate the photocatalytic activity of Pt/g-C3N4 to produce H2 and CO2 in one-step FA decomposition. And, the impedance is the lowest under simulated solar light of 70 mW cm−2 with a faster electron transfer kinetic. Under simulated solar light, H2 production rate is up to 1.59 mmol · h−1 · g−1 for FA with concentration at 2.65 mol l−1, 1700 000 times larger than that under visible light and 1928 times under ultraviolet (UV) light. DFT calculations further elucidate that nitrogen (N) active site at the g-C3N4 has an excellent adsorption towards CO2 molecule capture. Then, H2 molecules are selectively released to simultaneously separate H2 and CO2 in solution. Platinum (Pt) at Pt/g-C3N4 as the catalytic site contributes into the acceleration of H2 production.

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