Influence of Cocatalysts (Ni, Co, and Cu) and Synthesis Method on the Photocatalytic Activity of Exfoliated Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Hydrogen Production.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Rana, Adeem Ghaffar Schwarze, Michael Tasbihi, Minoo Sala, Xavier García-Antón, Jordi Minceva, Mirjana
Editor	Juan, Joon Ching
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	Exfoliated graphitic carbon nitride (ex-g-CN) was synthesized and loaded with non-noble metals (Ni, Cu, and Co). The synthesized catalysts were tested for hydrogen production using a 300-W Xe lamp equipped with a 395 nm cutoff filter. A noncommercial double-walled quartz-glass reactor irradiated from the side was used with a 1 g/L catalyst in 20 mL of a 10 vol% triethanolamine aqueous solution. For preliminary screening, the metal-loaded ex-g-CN was synthesized using the incipient wetness impregnation method. The highest hydrogen production was observed on the Ni-loaded ex-g-CN, which was selected to assess the impact of the synthesis method on hydrogen production. Ni-loaded ex-g-CN was synthesized using different synthesis methods: incipient wetness impregnation, colloidal deposition, and precipitation deposition. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method, and transmission electron microscopy. The Ni-loaded ex-g-CN synthesized using the colloidal method performed best with a hydrogen production rate of 43.6 µmol h−1 g−1. By contrast, the catalysts synthesized using the impregnation and precipitation methods were less active, with 28.2 and 10.1 µmol h−1 g−1, respectively. The hydrogen production performance of the suspended catalyst (440 µmol m−2 g−1) showed to be superior to that of the corresponding immobilized catalyst (236 µmol m−2 g−1).
Journal	Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
Volume Number	12
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9697847
Issue Number	22
PubMed reference number	36432291
e-ISSN	20794991
DOI	10.3390/nano12224006
Language	English
Publisher	MDPI
Publisher Date	2022-11-14
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). © 2022 by the authors.
Subject Keyword	graphitic carbon nitride water splitting hydrogen production nickel cocatalyst deposition
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemical Engineering Materials Science