DFT Perspective on the Thermochemistry of Carbon Nitride Synthesis

Graphitic (g)-CxNyHz has become a popular family of photoharvesters in photocatalytic water splitting cells, as well as other applications in chemistry. In this Article, different g-CxNyHz structures were studied thermochemically using DFT. Following a benchmark study with different families of functionals, the B3LYP functional was shown to accurately capture the thermochemistry of carbon nitride synthesis. A triple-ζ polarized basis set, in combination with Civalleri’s modification to Grimme’s D2 formalism (with s6 = 0.5) for dispersion interactions, yielded accurate geometries. Grimme’s D3 formalism with Becke–Johnson damping was used to refine the energetic description of dispersion interactions. The stepwise cycloaddition of cyanamide to form melamine was shown to be exergonic, whereas the stepwise deamination of melamine to form g-C3N4 was shown to be endergonic. Of those structures respecting the [C6N9H3]n chemical formula, the structure commonly known as “melon” was found to be most stable, whereas the sp3-hybridized [C6N9H3]n elucidated by Horvath-Bordon et al. was found to be the least stable. Fully polymerized triazine-based g-C3N4 appeared slightly more stable than heptazine-based g-C3N4.