The production of hydrogen from water using a catalyst and sunlight is an ideal future energy source, independent of fossil reserves. During the past 40 years, various inorganic semiconductors and molecular assemblies have been developed as catalysts for hydrogen production from water under visible light illumination. However, for an economical utilization of water and solar energy catalysts that are sufficiently efficient, stable, cheap, and capable of harvesting the abundant visible light are required. We have found that an abundant material, polymeric carbon nitride, can activate hydrogen production from water under visible light irradiation. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is the most stable phase of covalent carbon nitride and the facile synthesis of the melon substructure from simple liquid precursors and monomers allows easy engineering of carbon nitride materials to achieve better photocatlytic performance via several modification routes and methods, like templated synthesis,copolymerization, doping, and surface heterojunction design.

Modification of graphitic carbon nitride semiconductor for heterogeneous photocatalysis

247th National Meeting (2014)

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