A novel strategy to prepare 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets and their photoelectrochemical properties

作者:Miao, Hui; Zhang, Guowei; Hu, Xiaoyun*; Mu, Jianglong; Han, Tongxin; Fan, Jun; Zhu, Changjun; Song, Lixun; Bai, Jintao; Hou, Xun
来源:Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2017, 690: 669-676.
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.08.184

摘要

Herein; 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets was successfully prepared by two processes: acid treatment and liquid exfoliation. The thickness of the nanosheets was nearly 4.545 nm containing similar to 13 C-N layers. The acid treatment process before liquid exfoliation for bulk g-C3N4 could effectively destroy the in-plane periodicity of the aromatic systems and made the bulk easily exfoliated. This work carefully discussed the acid treatment effect for bulk by XRD patterns, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm, FT-IR spectra, and UV-vis-NIR absorption spectra. Moreover, the nanosheets was fabricated and transferred onto FTO substrates by vacuum filtration self-assembled method to carefully investigate their optical, electrical, and photoelectrochemical properties. The thin film filtrated by 2 ml g-C3N4 nanosheets supernatant showed the best photocurrent response nearly 0.5 mu A/cm(2) and the lowest resistance of charge transfer (Rct) at the interface between FTO and electrolyte. The photocurrent response could be further effectively improved from nearly 0.5 to 1.8 mu A/cm(2) by the integration of CNTs to promote charge separation and transfer. Thus, the easy, safe, and indirect synthesis of 2D g-C3N4-based nanosheets thin films opens new possibilities for the fabrication of many energy-related devices.