| Summary: | Hydrogen evolution by photocatalytic technology has been one of the most promising and attractive solutions, and can harvest and convert the abundant solar energy into green, renewable hydrogen energy. As a new kind of photocatalytic material, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>) has drawn much attention in photocataluytic H<sub>2</sub> production due to its visible light response, ease of preparation and good stability. For a higher photocatalyic performance, N defects were introduced in to the traditional g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> in this work. The existence of N defects was proved by adequate material characterization. Significantly, a new absorption region at around 500 nm of N-deficient g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> appeared, revealing the exciting n-π* transition of lone pair electrons. The photocatalytic H<sub>2</sub> production performance of N-deficient g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> was increased by 5.8 times. The enhanced photocatalytic performance of N-deficient g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> was attributed to the enhanced visible light absorption, as well as the promoted separation of photo-generated carries and increased specific surface area.
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