Multiple ordered porous honeycombed g-C3N4 with carbon ring in-plane splicing for outstanding photocatalytic H-2 production

Morphology regulation and electronic structure modulation are very important means to improve the photocatalytic H-2 evolution capability of the metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst. Herein, we constructed a multiple ordered porous honeycomb structure g-C(3)N(4)via a one-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method with the co-pyrolysis of melamine and glucose, involving the in-plane seamless splicing of the carbon ring (C-r) into the g-C3N4 lattice network (denoted as C-r-PHCN). The as-prepared C-r-PHCN exhibits a periodic honeycomb structure with a similar to 300 nm inner diameter and similar to 20 nm wall thickness. The multi-dimensional honeycomb architecture provides the concomitant advantages of enhanced light-harvesting ability, abundant active sites and short electron transport paths. Simultaneously, the seamless in-plane C-r splicing in triazine@C-r extends the pi-conjugated systems, which contributes to a narrow band gap, improved electrical conductivity and a low electron-hole recombination rate. Accordingly, the average hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of C-r-PHCN reaches 7581 mu mol h(-1) g(-1), around 47.4 times that of pure CN (160 mu mol h(-1) g(-1)), and its remarkable apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) reaches 10.62% at 420 nm. This work has successfully achieved the simultaneous morphology control and in-plane modification of high-performance g-C3N4 with high yield.