Water splitting. Metal-free efficient photocatalyst for stable visible water splitting via a two-electron pathway.
The use of solar energy to produce molecular hydrogen and oxygen (H2 and O2) from overall water splitting is a promising means of renewable energy storage. In the past 40 years, various inorganic and organic systems have been developed as photocatalysts for water splitting driven by visible light. These photocatalysts, however, still suffer from low quantum efficiency and/or poor stability. We report the design and fabrication of a metal-free carbon nanodot-carbon nitride (C3N4) nanocomposite and demonstrate its impressive performance for photocatalytic solar water splitting. We measured quantum efficiencies of 16% for wavelength λ = 420 ± 20 nanometers, 6.29% for λ = 580 ± 15 nanometers, and 4.42% for λ = 600 ± 10 nanometers, and determined an overall solar energy conversion efficiency of 2.0%. The catalyst comprises low-cost, Earth-abundant, environmentally friendly materials and shows excellent stability.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Juan
J
Liu
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Yang
Y
Liu
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Naiyun
N
Liu
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Yuzhi
Y
Han
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Xing
X
Zhang
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Hui
H
Huang
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel. zhkang@suda.edu.cn apannale@suda.edu.cn shayli@tx.technion.ac.il.
Yeshayahu
Y
Lifshitz
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. zhkang@suda.edu.cn apannale@suda.edu.cn shayli@tx.technion.ac.il.
Shuit-Tong
ST
Lee
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Jun
J
Zhong
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. zhkang@suda.edu.cn apannale@suda.edu.cn shayli@tx.technion.ac.il.
Zhenhui
Z
Kang