Facilitated photocatalytic H production on Cu-coordinated mesoporous g-CN nanotubes

• Published in: Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC 2023-04, Vol.25 (7), p.2577-2582
• Main Authors: Su, Zhuizhui, Zhang, Jianling, Tan, Zhonghao, Hu, Jingyang, Zhang, Fengtao, Duan, Ran, Yao, Lei, Han, Buxing, Zhao, Yingzhe, Yang, Yisen
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1463-9262; 1463-9270
• DOI: 10.1039/d3gc00337j

Photocatalytic conversion of solar energy to hydrogen (H 2 ) provides an efficient way for energy supply and storage. It is of great importance to improve the H 2 production efficiency by constructing photocatalysts with rapid charge transfer and separation and a low energy barrier for H 2 production. Here, we demonstrate high-efficiency photocatalytic H 2 production on Cu-coordinated mesoporous g-C 3 N 4 nanotubes. The catalyst exhibits a photocatalytic H 2 production rate of 6.53 mmol g −1 h −1 under visible-light irradiation ( λ > 420 nm), which is much higher than that over bulk g-C 3 N 4 (0.58 mmol g −1 h −1 ) under the same conditions. Advanced characterization and density functional theory calculations reveal that such a catalyst has stronger light absorption, facilitated carrier transfer and separation, and a reduced H 2 evolution barrier than Cu-free g-C 3 N 4 nanotubes. This study provides a new insight into the design of photocatalytically active sites of catalysts for high-performance H 2 production. Single-atom Cu-coordinated mesoporous g-C 3 N 4 nanotubes show excellent photocatalytic H 2 production. Theoretical and experimental results show that Cu-N 2 sites promote charge transfer and separation, and reduce the energy barrier of H 2 production.