LaOCl‐Coupled Polymeric Carbon Nitride for Overall Water Splitting through a One‐Photon Excitation Pathway

Abstract

It is a challenge to explore photocatalytic materials for sunlight‐driven water splitting owing to the limited choice of a single semiconductor with suitable band energy levels but with a minimized band gap for light harvesting. Here, we report a one‐photon excitation pathway by coupling polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) semiconductor with LaOCl to achieve overall water splitting. This artificial photosynthesis composite catalyzes the decomposition of H2O into H2 and O2, with evolution rates of 22.3 and 10.7 μmol h−1, respectively. The high photocatalytic performance of PCN/LaOCl can be ascribed to the simultaneously accomplished reduction and oxidation of water on LaOCl and PCN domains, respectively, as well as the fast charge separation and migration induced by the interfacial electric field related to LaOCl modification. This study provides new insights on the development of composite photocatalysts for pure water splitting based on polymer‐based materials via charge modulation.

FeOOH photo-deposited perylene linear polymer with accelerated charge separation for photocatalytic overall water splitting

“…Moreover, the time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS) was employed to characterize the fluorescence lifetime of the photocatalyst. Ac-cording to the literature [46], there was a negative correlation between the fluorescence lifetime and charge transfer activity. As shown in Figure 6d, compared with PS-5 (1.03 ns), the fluorescence lifetimes (τ) of PS-5/β-FeOOH were 0.95 ns, confirming the efficient charge mobility in photocatalyst with β-FeOOH loading.…”

Photocatalytic overall water splitting by graphitic carbon nitride

“…In addition to the aforementioned heterostructures, some novel strategies have also been proposed to design the composite GCN photocatalysts with suitable band positions for matching OWS potentials and in some cases with simultaneous improved light absorption. For example, Lin et al coupled an insulator LaOCl, which has layered structure consisted by (LaO) n n+ and Cl − layers, with PCN through molten salt method to provide a one‐photon excitation pathway for the photocatalyst 159 . The PCN was dispersed on LaOCl microplates with intimate interface contact (Figure 8(A)).…”

“…(C) Cycling properties of PCN/LaOCl. Reprinted with permission from Reference 159. Copyright 2020, Wiley‐VCH.…”

Recent advances in photocatalytic renewable energy production

“…Chen et al [73] constructed 3D porous g-C 3 N 4 assembled using highly crystalline and ultrathin NSs. The 3D g-C 3 N 4 NSs could produce H 2 and O 2 from water splitting with production rates of 101.4 and 49.…”