Key factors affecting photoelectrochemical performance of g-C3N4 polymer films

Qiushi Ruan; Mustafa K Bayazit; Vankayala Kiran; Jijia Xie; Yiou Wang; Junwang Tang

doi:10.1039/c9cc03084k

Key factors affecting photoelectrochemical performance of g-C₃N₄ polymer films

Chem Commun (Camb). 2019 Jun 25;55(50):7191-7194. doi: 10.1039/c9cc03084k. Epub 2019 Jun 5.

Authors

Qiushi Ruan¹, Mustafa K Bayazit², Vankayala Kiran³, Jijia Xie¹, Yiou Wang⁴, Junwang Tang¹

Affiliations

¹ Solar Energy & Advanced Materials Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCL Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. junwang.tang@ucl.ac.uk.
² Solar Energy & Advanced Materials Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCL Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. junwang.tang@ucl.ac.uk and Sabanci University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center, 34956, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey.
³ Solar Energy & Advanced Materials Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCL Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. junwang.tang@ucl.ac.uk and Department of Chemistry, BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, Goa 403 726, India.
⁴ Solar Energy & Advanced Materials Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCL Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. junwang.tang@ucl.ac.uk and Chair for Photonics and Optoelectronics, Nano-Institute Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Königinstr. 10, 80539 Munich, Germany.

PMID: 31165112
DOI: 10.1039/c9cc03084k

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between crystallinity, deep trap states and PEC performance of g-C₃N₄ photoelectrodes. Long-lived charge carriers were present in the more poorly crystalline samples, due to deeper trap states, which inversely correlated with photoelectrochemical performance. The charge diffusion length in a compact g-C₃N₄ film was determined to be ca. 1000 nm.