Alkali-Assisted Synthesis of Nitrogen Deficient Graphitic Carbon Nitride with Tunable Band Structures for Efficient Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Evolution.

Yu, Huijun; Shi, Run; Zhao, Yunxuan; Bian, Tong; Zhao, Yufei; Zhou, Chao; Waterhouse, Geoffrey I N; Wu, Li-Zhu et al. · Adv Mater · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A facile synthetic strategy for nitrogen-deficient graphitic carbon nitride (g-C<sub>3</sub> N<sub>x</sub> ) is established, involving a simple alkali-assisted thermal polymerization of urea, melamine, or thiourea. In situ introduced nitrogen vacancies significantly redshift the absorption edge of g-C<sub>3</sub> N<sub>x</sub> , with the defect concentration depending on the alkali to nitrogen precursor ratio. The g-C<sub>3</sub> N<sub>x</sub> products show superior visible-light photocatalytic performance compared to pristine g-C<sub>3</sub> N<sub>4</sub> .