Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2024, Vol. 60: 231-241.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(24)60008-2

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Towards highly-selective H2O2 photosynthesis: In-plane highly ordered carbon nitride nanorods with Ba atoms implantation

Aiyun Meng, Xinyuan Ma, Da Wen, Wei Zhong*(), Shuang Zhou*(), Yaorong Su*()   

  1. College of New Materials and New Energies, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, Guangdong, China
  • Received:2024-01-25 Accepted:2024-02-24 Online:2024-05-18 Published:2024-05-20
  • Contact: E-mail: zhongwei@sztu.edu.cn (W. Zhong), zhoushuang@sztu.edu.cn (S. Zhou), suyaorong@sztu.edu.cn (Y. Su).
  • About author:First author contact:1Contributed equally to this work.
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(22178224);National Natural Science Foundation of China(22272110);National Natural Science Foundation of China(22002091);Fundamental Research Funds for Shenzhen Technology University(20211063010047);Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(2020A1515110873);Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(2023A1515110535);Shenzhen Science and Technology Program(20231127203830001)

Abstract:

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) shows great potential in photocatalytic H2O2 production. However, challenges arise from its low in-plane crystallinity and selectivity in two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e--ORR), greatly limiting its H2O2 photosynthesis efficiency. Herein, we develop an ingenious strategy to simultaneously increase the in-plane crystallinity and induce the highly-selective 2e--ORR by rationally designing barium (Ba) atom-implanted in-plane highly ordered g-C3N4 nanorods. The approach involves controllable synthesis of in-plane high crystallinity g-C3N4 nanorods with Ba implantation (BI-CN) using a BaCl2-mediated in-plane polymerization strategy. The unique Ba-N interaction induces the oriented polymerization of 3-s-triazine units to form well-arranged in-plane structures. Experimental and theoretical calculations clarify that the implanted Ba atoms function as positive charge centers, resulting in a Pauling-type O2 adsorption configuration. This minimizes O-O bond breaking energy, thus suppressing the four-electron oxygen reduction reaction (4e--ORR) and facilitating a highly-selective 2e--ORR pathway for efficient photocatalytic H2O2 production. Consequently, the optimized BI-CN3 photocatalyst exhibits an outstanding H2O2 production rate of as high as 353 μmol L-1 h-1, surpassing the pristine g-C3N4 by 6.1 times. This study concurrently optimizes the in-plane crystallinity and O2 adsorption sites of g-C3N4 photocatalysts for highly-selective H2O2 production, providing innovative insights for designing efficient photocatalysts with diverse applications.

Key words: Hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis, Carbon nitride, Ba implantation, Highly-selective 2e?-ORR, In-plane crystallinity