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▼ [14a-A25-4] Enhancement of Broadband Solar Light Absorption and Photocurrent Increase of C3N4 Nanoparticles Combined with TiN and Carbon Nanoparticles
Keywords:Photocurrent, Carbon nitride, Absorption
The use of solar energy to produce hydrogen fuel from overall water splitting is a promising means of renewable energy storage. In the past years, various inorganic and organic materials have been developed as photocatalysts for water splitting driven by visible solar light.1 Plasmonic metal nanostructures has been proposed to offer a route to improve the solar energy conversion efficiency of inorganic/semiconductors materials system.1,2 C3N4 is an Earth-abundant and low-cost semiconducting photocatalyst material capable of generating H2 and H2O2 from water.3 The band gap energy of 2.7 eV and high valence band and conduction band positions [1.8 and –0.9 eV versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] makes it promising material for visible light photocatalysis. During water splitting, C3N4 require sacrificial reagent and also suffers from poisoning by the produced H2O2, which is difficult to remove from the C3N4 surface.4 Various attempt have been made to improve the catalytic activity of C3N4.3,4
Here, we show the strategy to increase the solar light absorption by making a composite of C3N4 nanoparticles and plasmonic TiN nanoparticles to improve the photo-electrochemical water splitting performance under simulated solar radiation. Utilization of the broadband plasmonic resonance of the TiN particles and the incorporation of carbon dots (C-Dots) into the C3N4 matrix (Fig. 1a) leads to an increase in the UV-vis to NIR absorption over the entire solar spectrum range. The simple chemical synthesis route is used to grow TiN nanoparticles on C3N4-carbon dots composite. The hot electron injection from plasmonic nanostructure to composite and C3N4 plays role in photocatalysis (Fig. 1b), whereas C-dots acts as chemical catalyst for the decomposition of H2O2 into O2. C-dots plays major role in avoiding the sacrificial reagent and catalytic poisoning. This two-step approach overcomes the low optical absorption, spectral utilization and charge recombination losses, and gives effective way to improve the photocatalytic activity. By incorporating TiN the catalytic performance of C3N4-C-dots is increased by 6-fold.
References:
1. Liu, J. et. al. Science 2015, 347, 970.
2. Chen, J. et. al. Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 7492.
3. J. Liu, Y. Zhang, L. Lu, G. Wu, W. Chen, Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8826.
4. X. Wang et al., Nat. Mater. 2009, 8, 76.
Here, we show the strategy to increase the solar light absorption by making a composite of C3N4 nanoparticles and plasmonic TiN nanoparticles to improve the photo-electrochemical water splitting performance under simulated solar radiation. Utilization of the broadband plasmonic resonance of the TiN particles and the incorporation of carbon dots (C-Dots) into the C3N4 matrix (Fig. 1a) leads to an increase in the UV-vis to NIR absorption over the entire solar spectrum range. The simple chemical synthesis route is used to grow TiN nanoparticles on C3N4-carbon dots composite. The hot electron injection from plasmonic nanostructure to composite and C3N4 plays role in photocatalysis (Fig. 1b), whereas C-dots acts as chemical catalyst for the decomposition of H2O2 into O2. C-dots plays major role in avoiding the sacrificial reagent and catalytic poisoning. This two-step approach overcomes the low optical absorption, spectral utilization and charge recombination losses, and gives effective way to improve the photocatalytic activity. By incorporating TiN the catalytic performance of C3N4-C-dots is increased by 6-fold.
References:
1. Liu, J. et. al. Science 2015, 347, 970.
2. Chen, J. et. al. Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 7492.
3. J. Liu, Y. Zhang, L. Lu, G. Wu, W. Chen, Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8826.
4. X. Wang et al., Nat. Mater. 2009, 8, 76.