Controlled preparation of P-doped g-C3N4 nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Hydrogen production by photolysis of water by sunlight is an environmentally-friendly preparation technology for renewable energy. Graphitic carbon nitride(g-CN), despite with obvious catalytic effect, is still unsatisfactory for hydrogen production. In this work, phosphorus element is incorporated to tune g-CN’s property through calcinating the mixture of g-CNand Na HPO,sacrificial agent and co-catalyst also been supplied to help efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. Phosphorus(P) doped g-CNsamples(PCN-S) were prepared, and their catalytic properties were studied. X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and ultraviolet diffuse reflection(UV-DRS) were used to study their structures and morphologies. The results show that the reaction rate of PCN-S is 318 μmol·h·g,which is 2.98 times as high as pure carbon nitride nanosheets(CN) can do. Our study paves a new avenue,which is simple, environment-friendly and sustainable, to synthesize highly efficient P doping g-CNnanosheets for solar energy conversion.