Unraveling molecular-level mechanisms of reactive facet of carbon nitride single crystals photocatalyzing overall water
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Unraveling molecular-level mechanisms of reactive facet of carbon nitride single crystals photocatalyzing overall water splitting Cong-Yong Wang, Chen-Huai Yang, Zhi-Cheng Zhang*
The Nonferrous Metals Society of China and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Despite the reactive facets play a vital role in designing highly efficient photocatalysts, it has long been a tremendous challenge to reveal the principle that reactive facets favor photocatalysis at the molecular level. In a recent work published in Nature catalysis, Lin et al. [1] investi g and {0001} gated photocatalytic properties of the f1010 ? planes of polytriazine imide (PTI)/Li Cl single crystals by photodeposition of co-catalysts, which paves the way to develop high efficiency polymer photocatalysts for overall water splitting. Photocatalytic water splitting has been considered as a promising approach to produce renewable and clean energy as it can generate hydrogen gas for supplying energy and preparing hydrocarbon and alcohol as the raw materials [2–4]. Remarkably, the identification of reactive facets of photocatalysts is critical for developing highly efficient photocatalysts because they can affect not only photocatalytic activity but also charge separation during the water photolysis process [5, 6]. Therefore, it is highly desirable to Cong-Yong Wang and Chen-Huai Yang have contributed equally to this work. C.-Y. Wang Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University, International Campus of Tianjin University, Fuzhou 350207, China C.-Y. Wang Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore C.-H. Yang, Z.-C. Zhang* Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University & Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China e-mail: [email protected]
determine the reactive facets of photocatalysts and study the underlying mechanism that the reactive facets of photocatalysts improve photoactivity. Specially, the exploration of the reactive facets of polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) has attracted extensive attention due to its intriguing features and potential application in photocatalytic water splitting [7–9]. The two-dimensional (2D) planes of PCN exhibited greatly exposed surface areas and accessible introduction of co-catalysts, rendering them to be the ideal reactive facets in photocatalytic water splitting [10, 11]. However, it remains a significant challenge to understand atomic structure and the reactive planes of PCN, which can be primarily attributed to the low crystallinity of PCN synthesized by classical thermal polymerization, as well as poor stability under high-energy electron irradiation [12]. Publishing in Nature catalysis, Lin et al. [1] reported the preparation of PTI/ Li?Cl- via ionothermal methods, achieving high crystallinity and effective photocatalytic overall water splitting by loading Pt/Co co-catalysts (F
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