Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting
We report the successful growth of high quality carbon nitride based copolymer (CNBC) films on various substrates (glass, FTO, and TiO2) through a facile solvothermal method with post-annealing. The structural characterization of the films reveals the polymeric carbon nitride network consisting of t...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143461 |
| _version_ | 1826121720455495680 |
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| author | Gu, Quan Gong, Xuezhong Jia, Qiaohui Liu, Jianni Gao, Ziwei Wang, Xuxu Long, Jinlin Xue, Can |
| author2 | School of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Materials Science and Engineering Gu, Quan Gong, Xuezhong Jia, Qiaohui Liu, Jianni Gao, Ziwei Wang, Xuxu Long, Jinlin Xue, Can |
| author_sort | Gu, Quan |
| collection | NTU |
| description | We report the successful growth of high quality carbon nitride based copolymer (CNBC) films on various substrates (glass, FTO, and TiO2) through a facile solvothermal method with post-annealing. The structural characterization of the films reveals the polymeric carbon nitride network consisting of tri-s-triazines and s-triazines bridged by different functional groups. The strong bonding between the CNBC films and the substrates via covalent linkage ensures intimate contact and smooth interfacial charge transport. As such, the CNBC films exhibit excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance, which is attributed to stronger visible light harvesting, better conductivity, and more efficient charge separation and transport, as compared to a reference electrode made by pasting bulk g-C3N4 powder. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a similar solvothermal approach can be also used to create CNBC films on a TiO2 surface, and the resulting CNBC/TiO2 junction allows for vectorial charge transfer, giving greatly enhanced photocurrent responses. Importantly, this work provides a general guide to solvothermal methods for in situ growing metal-free films on various substrates for efficient PEC water splitting. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:36:48Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/143461 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:36:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1434612023-07-14T15:58:03Z Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting Gu, Quan Gong, Xuezhong Jia, Qiaohui Liu, Jianni Gao, Ziwei Wang, Xuxu Long, Jinlin Xue, Can School of Materials Science and Engineering Engineering::Materials Annealing Carbon Nitride We report the successful growth of high quality carbon nitride based copolymer (CNBC) films on various substrates (glass, FTO, and TiO2) through a facile solvothermal method with post-annealing. The structural characterization of the films reveals the polymeric carbon nitride network consisting of tri-s-triazines and s-triazines bridged by different functional groups. The strong bonding between the CNBC films and the substrates via covalent linkage ensures intimate contact and smooth interfacial charge transport. As such, the CNBC films exhibit excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance, which is attributed to stronger visible light harvesting, better conductivity, and more efficient charge separation and transport, as compared to a reference electrode made by pasting bulk g-C3N4 powder. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a similar solvothermal approach can be also used to create CNBC films on a TiO2 surface, and the resulting CNBC/TiO2 junction allows for vectorial charge transfer, giving greatly enhanced photocurrent responses. Importantly, this work provides a general guide to solvothermal methods for in situ growing metal-free films on various substrates for efficient PEC water splitting. Ministry of Education (MOE) Nanyang Technological University Accepted version This work was financially supported by NTU seed funding for Solar Fuels Laboratory, Singapore MOE AcRF-Tier1 (RG 120/16), and MOE AcRF-Tier2 (MOE2016-T2-2-056). Q. Gu acknowledges the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21503127), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. GK201603030), and the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2017JM2008). The authors acknowledge the Facility for Analysis, Characterization, Testing and Simulation (FACTS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for use of their scanning electron microscopy (FESEM JSM-7600F) facilities. 2020-09-03T01:33:26Z 2020-09-03T01:33:26Z 2017 Journal Article Gu, Q., Gong, X., Jia, Q., Liu, J., Gao, Z., Wang, X., ... Xue, C. (2017). Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5(36), 19062-19071. doi:10.1039/C7TA06081E 2050-7488 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143461 10.1039/c7ta06081e 2-s2.0-85029642605 36 5 19062 19071 en RG 120/16 MOE2016-T2-2-056 Journal of Materials Chemistry A © 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A and is made available with permission of Royal Society of Chemistry. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Materials Annealing Carbon Nitride Gu, Quan Gong, Xuezhong Jia, Qiaohui Liu, Jianni Gao, Ziwei Wang, Xuxu Long, Jinlin Xue, Can Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title | Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title_full | Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title_fullStr | Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title_full_unstemmed | Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title_short | Compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| title_sort | compact carbon nitride based copolymer films with controllable thickness for photoelectrochemical water splitting |
| topic | Engineering::Materials Annealing Carbon Nitride |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143461 |
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