Metal Ni-loaded g-C3N4 for enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution activity: the change in surface band bending.
A series of Ni@g-C3N4 composites were synthesized by a simple solvent thermal method using melamine and acetylacetone nickel as precursors. The results of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy indicate that Ni was successfully loaded on g-C3N4. And the Ni loaded greatly enhances the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of g-C3N4 compared to the pure g-C3N4. In order to study the role of Ni, the surface photovoltage, the surface photocurrent and photoluminescence measurements were used to investigate the photogenerated charge properties of g-C3N4. What is more, Mott-Schottky plots and work function measurements confirmed the surface band bending change of g-C3N4 contacting with Ni. Those results demonstrate that Ni coating deepens surface band bending of g-C3N4, resulting in higher separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers, which is contributed to the enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution activity.
College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, People's Republic of China. xietf@jlu.edu.cn.
Lingling
L
Bi
Dandan
D
Xu
Lijing
L
Zhang
Yanhong
Y
Lin
Dejun
D
Wang
Tengfeng
T
Xie