N, P Self-Doped Porous Carbon Material Derived from Lotus Pollen for Highly Efficient Ethanol–Water Mixtures Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Porous biochar materials prepared with biomass as a precursor have received widespread attention. In this work, lotus pollen (LP) was used as the carbon source, a variety of the pollen carbon photocatalyst were prepared by a two-step roasting method. A series of characterizations were carried out on the prepared samples, and it was found that the average particle size was about 40 μm. They also exhibit a typical amorphous carbon structure and a porous structure with a network-like interconnected surface. The photocatalytic hydrogen production performances of lotus pollen carbon (LP-C) and commercial carbon black (CB) were measured under the full spectrum illumination. LP-C-600 showed the best hydrogen production performance (3.5 μmol·g−1·h−1). In addition, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurement results confirmed that the LP-C materials show better incident photon-current efficiency (IPCE) performance than the CB materials in the neutral electrolyte. This is because the unique surface wrinkling, hierarchical porous structure, and the N, P self-doping behavior of the LP-C samples are able to improve the light utilization efficiency and the carrier separation/transfer efficiency, thereby further improving the overall hydrogen production efficiency.

Biomass-Derived Carbon Materials in Heterogeneous Catalysis: A Step towards Sustainable Future

“…The photo response range of the LP-C-600 was also very broad (300-600 nm), and its IPCE value achieved its greatest value of 0.11% at 350 nm under a 0.8V bias. The incident monochromatic photon current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of the sample increased sharply as the applied bias voltage increased, while its bandgap was noticeably reduced [110].…”

Pollen Carbon-Based Rare-Earth Composite Material for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production from Ethanol–Water Mixtures

“… 7 − 9 However, the current research on biochar-based photocatalysts is mainly focused on the degradation of organic pollutants, 4 , 10 , 11 and there is less research in photocatalytic hydrogen production from water. 6 , 8 , 9 , 12 − 15 Moreover, it is difficult to achieve a high catalytic effect using a simple carbon material.…”

“…At the same time, biochar can inherit the morphology and porous structure of natural biomass and realize the self-doping of elements (P, N, etc.) to improve the use of light, enhance the mass transfer, and raise the dispersion of the loaded metal. , Excitingly, biochar can be directly used to realize the composite with other substances for improving the electron transfer. − However, the current research on biochar-based photocatalysts is mainly focused on the degradation of organic pollutants, ,, and there is less research in photocatalytic hydrogen production from water. ,,,− Moreover, it is difficult to achieve a high catalytic effect using a simple carbon material.…”

Advanced Photocatalytic Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion and Environmental Remediation

“…These eleven papers were devoted to achieving high-efficiency photocatalysts by broadening the light absorption range, inhibiting the photo-induced electrons and holes recombination, and promoting the extraction of photo-induced charges for chemical reactions. The strategies include defect engineering [1], element doping [2,3], morphology manipulation [3,4], and binary and ternary composite fabrication [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Herein, we will provide a brief introduction to these works.…”

“…Furthermore, MB adsorption on the La/ZnTiO 3 surface is much easier than on ZnTiO 3 , which indicates that introducing La will increase the photocatalytic MB degradation ability of ZnTiO 3 . Lu et al [3] prepared an N, P self-doped carbon material with unique surface wrinkling and a hierarchical porous structure. This special morphology, together with N, P self-doping, improves the light absorption and the charge-carrier separation/transfer efficiency, and, thus, enhances the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance.…”