Mesoporous TiO2 has gained increasing interest because of its outstanding properties and promising applications in a wide range of fields. Herein, we report the facile synthesis of ordered mesoporous black TiO2 (OMBT) materials, which exhibit excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performances. In this case, the employment of a thermally stable and high-surface-area mesoporous TiO2 as the hydrogenation precursor is the key for fabricating the OMBT materials, which not only facilitate H2 gas diffusion into TiO2 and interaction with their structures but also maintain the ordered mesoporous structures as well as inhibit the phase transformation (from anatase to rutile) and crystal growth during hydrogenation at 500 °C. The resultant OMBT materials possess a relatively high surface area of ∼124 m(2) g(-1) and a large pore size and pore volume of ∼9.6 nm and 0.24 cm(3) g(-1), respectively. More importantly, the OMBT materials can extend the photoresponse from ultraviolet to visible and infrared light regions and exhibit a high solar-driven hydrogen production rate (136.2 μmol h(-1)), which is almost two times as high as that of pristine mesoporous TiO2 (76.6 μmol h(-1)).

Polymeric carbon nitride (C3N4) has emerged as the most promising candidate for metal-free photocatalysts but is plagued by low activity due to the poor quantum efficiency and low specific surface area. Exfoliation of bulk crystals into ultrathin nanosheets has proven to be an effective and widely used strategy for enabling high photocatalytic performances; however, this process is complicated, time-consuming, and costly. Here, we report a simple bottom-up method to synthesize porous few-layer C3N4, which involves molecule self-assembly into layered precursors, alcohol molecules intercalation, and subsequent thermal-induced exfoliation and polycondensation. The as-prepared few-layer C3N4 expose more active sites and greatly enhance the separation of charge carriers, thus exhibiting a 26-fold higher hydrogen evolution activity than bulk counterpart. Furthermore, we find that both the high activity and selectivity for the oxidative coupling of amines to imines can be obtained under visible light that surpass those of other metal-free photocatalysts so far.

Nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets (NGS) with the nitrogen level as high as 10.13 atom% were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal reaction of graphene oxide (GO) and urea. N-doping and reduction of GO were achieved simultaneously under the hydrothermal reaction. In the fabrication, the nitrogen-enriched urea plays a pivotal role in forming the NGS with a high nitrogen level. During the hydrothermal process, the N-dopant of urea could release NH 3 in a sustained manner, accompanied by the released NH 3 reacting with the oxygen functional groups of the GO and then the nitrogen atoms doped into graphene skeleton, leading to the formation of NGS. The nitrogen level and species could be conveniently controlled by easily tuning the experimental parameters, including the mass ratio between urea and GO and the hydrothermal temperature. Remarkably, in 6 M KOH electrolyte, the synthesized NGS with both high nitrogen (10.13 atom%) and large surface area (593 m 2 g 21 ) exhibits excellent capacitive behaviors (326 F g 21 , 0.2 A g 21 ), superior cycling stability (maintaining initial capacity even) and coulombic efficiency (99.58%) after 2000 cycles. The energy density of 25.02 Wh kg 21 could be achieved at power density of 7980 W kg 21 by a two-electrode symmetric capacitor test. A series of experiments results demonstrated that not only the N-content but also the N-type are very significant for the capacitive behaviors. In more detail, the pyridinic-N and pyrrolic-N play mainly roles for improving pseudo-capacitance by the redox reaction, while quaternary-N could enhance the conductivity of the materials which is favorable to the transport of electrons during the charge/discharge process. Hence, the approach in this work could provide a new way for preparing NGS materials which could be used as advanced electrodes in high performance supercapacitors.