Shixiong Min

Novel Strategy of Defect-Induced Graphite Nitride Carbon Preparation and Photocatalytic Performance

Based on the fact that nitrogen defective can greatly affect the electronic structure and the properties of photo-excited charge transmission and plays a substantial role in photocatalysis, defect-induced graphite nitride carbon (g–C3N4−x(X)NiS2) was synthesized by a facile one step with sodium hydroxide-assisted route in this paper. The photocatalytic activity of nitrogen defective g–C3N4−x(0.1)NiS2 composite photocatalysts exhibited much more high activities, namely, the maximum amount of H2 production was reached up to 143.5xa0µmol under continuous visible light irradiation for 5xa0h, which is about 72 times of pristine g–C3N4 photocatalyst and two times of g–C3N4(0)NiS2 composite photocatalysts. Such high enhanced abilities were greatly attributed to the nitrogen defective on the photocatalysts. A series of characterizations such as SEM, TEM, XPS, XRD, BET, FTIR, UV–vis diffusexa0reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photocurrent and transient fluorescence etc. were conducted and the results of which were in fully congruent with each other. Furthermore, the possible reaction mechanism over nitrogen defective g–C3N4−x(X)NiS2 composite photocatalyst under visible light irradiation was proposed.Graphical Abstract

Effective hydrothermal grafting of Eosin Y onto TiO2 nanoparticles towards stable photocatalysts for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution

Herein, we report a simple hydrothermal method for effectively grafting the Eosin Y (EY) dye onto TiO2 nanoparticles to afford a stable EY-sensitized TiO2 photocatalyst (EY-TiO2-HT), which shows an improved and stable H2 evolution activity under visible light (520 nm), achieving a 2.2 times higher turnover number for H2 evolution versus dye than the physical mixture of EY and TiO2 (EY-TiO2-mix).

Highly active dye-sensitized photocatalytic H2 evolution catalyzed by a single-atom Pt cocatalyst anchored onto g-C3N4 nanosheets under long-wavelength visible light irradiation

Herein, we report a highly active and durable single-atom Pt cocatalyst anchored onto g-C3N4 nanosheets (Pt–CN) for long-wavelength visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution. Upon spectral sensitization with Eosin Y (EY) dye, Pt–CN exhibits a ∼5-fold increase in specific activity over the Pt nanoparticles loaded g-C3N4 (Pt NPs–CN) under 520 nm irradiation and shows excellent recycling stability.