Co-catalyst loading provides an effective way to enhance the efficiency of photocatalysts for solar hydrogen production. From a sustainability point of view, it has immense scientific and technological values to explore more efficient co-catalytic systems by using multi-cocatalysts, because of potential synergetic effects between different components. Herein, the feasibility of using Ti3C2 MXene nanoparticles and Pt nanoclusters as dual co-catalysts to enhance the photoactivity of g-C3N4 for H2 production was investigated. Due to the improved electrical conductivity and increased reactive sites for photoreduction reactions, Ti3C2 and Pt co-modified photocatalysts exhibited a high photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 5.1 mmol h-1 g-1. Compared to g-C3N4/Ti3C2 and g-C3N4/Pt, the 3- and 5-fold increased photoactivity demonstrated great potential of Ti3C2 MXene nanoparticles to construct high-performance photocatalysts. The synergetic effects between Ti3C2 and Pt were fundamentally investigated, indicating that the specific transfer of electrons not only contributed to the inhibited recombination of charge carriers but also resulted in good stability of heterostructured photocatalysts. Our results have demonstrated an approach worthy for the design and fabrication of high-efficiency heterostructures with superior photoactivity for hydrogen energy production.
In this paper, T-700™ carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) minicomposites with pyrocarbon (PyC) interphase with different textural microstructure and thickness were fabricated using the chemical vapor infiltration method. The interface properties (i.e., textural microstructure, thickness, hardness, and modulus) were obtained through multiple testing methods (i.e., Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and nanoindentation tests). Relationships between the deposition temperature and residence time with the texture type (i.e., low, medium, and high texture) were established. Uniaxial tensile experiments were conducted for C/SiC minicomposites with different PyC interphases to characterize the composite's internal damage evolution and fracture. Relationships between the composite's tensile nonlinear damage evolution, fracture strength and strain, PyC interphase texture, and thickness were established. The composite's tensile strength and fracture strain were the highest for the C/SiC minicomposite with medium-high texture PyC interphase.For the C/SiC minicomposite with the same texture interphase, the composite's tensile strength and fracture strain were affected by the coating thickness. The higher the thickness of the coating, the lower the composite's tensile strength and fracture strain.
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