Metal-free highly efficient photocatalysts for overall water splitting: C₃N₅ multilayers

Abstract

We demonstrated from first-principles the C3N5 multilayers as high-efficient photocatalysts for overall water splitting. The redox ability of the photogenerated carriers is high enough to drive HER and OER without using sacrificial reagents.

Photocatalytic overall water splitting by graphitic carbon nitride

“…Especially, the physicochemical properties of the GCN counterpart materials with high crystallinity (such as PTI, PHI, etc.) have been gradually revealed in recent years, and some theoretical/experimental investigations also disclose the possibilities of enhancing OWS performance with GCN derived polymeric photocatalysts including C 2 N, 167,168 C 3 N 3 , 169 C 3 N 5 , 170 and so forth. These findings may provide some starting points to deepen the research on the OWS performance enhancement of GCN. Integrating GCN with other materials (including charge carrier conductors, semiconductors, insulators) is crucial for developing highly efficient photocatalytic systems.…”

Solar‐powered chemistry: Engineering low‐dimensional carbon nitride‐based nanostructures for selective CO2 conversion to C1C2 products

“…Herein, diverse as‐synthesized C 3 N 5 polymorphs have an impact on the surface electronic, optical, and physicochemical properties 302 . For example, the triazole–triazine based moiety (see Figure 27A) in carbon nitride induces more electrons in π–π conjugation and increased pyrrolic N sites compared to the commonly reported triazine or heptazine based carbon nitride system 303,305,306 . Through computational analysis, the triazole‐triazine framework of C 3 N 5 was observed to endow a more extended π‐conjugated network that overlapped between the π orbitals of the azo‐bridged units, hence enabling the extension of optical absorption up to 700 nm with a band gap of 1.76 eV 304 .…”

Proton reduction by a bimetallic zinc selenolate electrocatalyst

“…[23][24][25] Recently, we have reported a diorgano diselenide derived from the o-aminophenyl diselenide ligand, which could activate aerial oxygen towards the oxidation of organothiols. 26,27 Inspired by nature 28 and by the non-transition metal electrocatalysts, i.e., aluminum-bis aminopyridine (Scheme 1), for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER), 20,21,29,30 herein, we report the synthesis and structural characterization of the novel bimetallic zinc selenolate electrocatalyst 1 that catalyzes the ligand centered hydrogen evolution reactions. Also, the catalyst has been studied in heterogeneous conditions for HER from water under an acidic medium for a longer period (7 hours).…”