Ruochen Liu , Shiqi Zhao , Xiaorong Cheng , Luhua Lu , Xiyang Liu , Tianqi Liu , Bochao Dong , Graham Dawson
{"title":"Self-catalysed breakdown of titanate nanotubes by graphitic carbon nitride resulting in enhanced hydrogen production","authors":"Ruochen Liu , Shiqi Zhao , Xiaorong Cheng , Luhua Lu , Xiyang Liu , Tianqi Liu , Bochao Dong , Graham Dawson","doi":"10.1016/j.nxmate.2024.100358","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Efficient design of a photocatalyst is an important step in realizing real world applications. In this work, using in-situ catalysis we have prepared and investigated a titanate nanotube (TiNT)/ graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite, which after optimization shows excellent hydrogen production efficiency of 2.3 mmolg<sup>−1</sup>h<sup>−1</sup>, much improved compared to GCN, which achieved a rate of 0.56 mmolg<sup>−1</sup>h<sup>−1</sup>. We can conclude that pyrolysis of urea to carbon nitride also self catalyses the breakdown of TiNT into anatase TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles, resulting in a nanocomposite material comprising TiO<sub>2</sub> and heterojunctions with GCN. After heating and modification the TiO<sub>2</sub> shows a conduction band edge with a more negative potential than the H<sup>+</sup>/H<sub>2</sub> potential, which along with the ideal position of the GCN CB edge facilitates hydrogen production under light irradiation. This novel method can be viewed as a general method for improving catalysis synthesis and design, whilst simultaneously reducing the complexity and energy footprint of active catalyst synthesis.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100958,"journal":{"name":"Next Materials","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100358"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949822824002557/pdfft?md5=6c01beeec28d49825898ca991b16ee44&pid=1-s2.0-S2949822824002557-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Next Materials","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949822824002557","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Efficient design of a photocatalyst is an important step in realizing real world applications. In this work, using in-situ catalysis we have prepared and investigated a titanate nanotube (TiNT)/ graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite, which after optimization shows excellent hydrogen production efficiency of 2.3 mmolg−1h−1, much improved compared to GCN, which achieved a rate of 0.56 mmolg−1h−1. We can conclude that pyrolysis of urea to carbon nitride also self catalyses the breakdown of TiNT into anatase TiO2 nanoparticles, resulting in a nanocomposite material comprising TiO2 and heterojunctions with GCN. After heating and modification the TiO2 shows a conduction band edge with a more negative potential than the H+/H2 potential, which along with the ideal position of the GCN CB edge facilitates hydrogen production under light irradiation. This novel method can be viewed as a general method for improving catalysis synthesis and design, whilst simultaneously reducing the complexity and energy footprint of active catalyst synthesis.