Synergy of defect engineering and curvature effect for porous graphite carbon nitride nanotubes promoted photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Graphite carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) nanotubes have received extensive attention due to its unique morphology and electronic migration. Herein, the defective porous g‐C3N4 nanotube (DTCN) is prepared through a simple thermal reduction process. The construction of N vacancy and tubular structure can synergistically promote the separation of photogenerated charge carriers. As a result, DTCN demonstrates a higher photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate (1440 μmol·g−1·h−1), which is 5 times higher than that of the initial g‐C3N4 nanotube (TCN). Importantly, combined with density functional theory calculations and experimental results, it is the first time to prove that the synergy of curvature effect and N vacancy of nanotubes can enhance the adsorption energy of hydrogen and decrease the work function, resulting in more superior photocatalytic performance than the layered structure. This work provides more in‐depth comprehension for the photocatalytic mechanism of nanotube materials, which has inspirational significance for the design of the g‐C3N4 photocatalyst with high performance.