Na-mediated carbon nitride realizing CO2 photoreduction with selectivity modulation

Yi Han; Wen Li; Chuanzhou Bi; Jinyuan Liu; Hangmin Xu; Hao Song; Kang Zhong; Jinman Yang; Weiyi Jiang; Jianjian Yi; Bin Wang; Paul K Chu; Penghui Ding; Hui Xu; Xingwang Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.003

Na-mediated carbon nitride realizing CO₂ photoreduction with selectivity modulation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Sep 15:670:348-356. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.003. Epub 2024 May 8.

Authors

Yi Han¹, Wen Li¹, Chuanzhou Bi¹, Jinyuan Liu², Hangmin Xu¹, Hao Song¹, Kang Zhong³, Jinman Yang⁴, Weiyi Jiang¹, Jianjian Yi¹, Bin Wang², Paul K Chu², Penghui Ding⁵, Hui Xu³, Xingwang Zhu⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutralization, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, PR China.
² Department of Physics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, PR China.
³ School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
⁴ School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China. Electronic address: jmyang@ujs.edu.cn.
⁵ Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Department of Science and Technology, Linkoping University, Norrkoping SE-601 74, Sweden. Electronic address: penghui.ding@liu.se.
⁶ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutralization, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, PR China. Electronic address: zxw@yzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38763030
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.003

Abstract

The depressed directional separation of photogenerated carriers and weak CO₂ adsorption/activation activity are the main factors hampering the development of artificial photosynthesis. Herein, Na ions are embedded in graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) to achieve directional migration of the photogenerated electrons to Na sites, while the electron-rich Na sites enhance CO₂ adsorption and activation. Na/g-C₃N₄ (NaCN) shows improved photocatalytic reduction activity of CO₂ to CO and CH₄, and under simulated sunlight irradiation, the CO yield of NaCN synthesized by embedding Na at 550°C (NaCN-550) is 371.2 μmol g^-1 h^-1, which is 58.9 times more than that of the monomer g-C₃N₄. By means of theoretical calculations and experiments including in situ fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the mechanism is investigated. This strategy which improves carrier separation and reduces the energy barrier at the same time is important to the development of artificial photosynthesis.

Keywords: CO(2) reduction; Carrier separation; Ion intercalation; Photocatalysts; g-C(3)N(4).