TY - JOUR
T1 - Thylakoid-Inspired Multishell g-C3N4 Nanocapsules with Enhanced Visible-Light Harvesting and Electron Transfer Properties for High-Efficiency Photocatalysis
AU - Tong, Zhenwei
AU - Yang, Dong
AU - Li, Zhen
AU - Nan, Yanhu
AU - Ding, Fei
AU - Shen, Yichun
AU - Jiang, Zhongyi
N1 - Generated from Scopus record by KAUST IRTS on 2023-09-20
PY - 2017/1/24
Y1 - 2017/1/24
N2 - Inspired by the orderly stacked nanostructure and highly integrated function of thylakoids in a natural photosynthesis system, multishell g-C3N4 (MSCN) nanocapsule photocatalysts have been prepared by SiO2 hard template with different shell layers. The resultant triple-shell g-C3N4 (TSCN) nanocapsules display superior photocatalysis performance to single-shell and double-shell counterparts owing to excellent visible-light harvesting and electron transfer properties. Specially, with the increase of the shell layer number, light harvesting is greatly enhanced. There is an increase of the entire visible range absorption arising from the multiple scattering and reflection of the incident light within multishell nanoarchitectures as well as the light transmission within the porous thin shells, and an increase of absorption edge arising from the decreased quantum size effect. The electron transfer is greatly accelerated by the mesopores in the thin shells as nanoconduits and the high specific surface area of TSCN (310.7 m2 g-1). With the tailored hierarchical nanostructure features, TSCN exhibits a superior visible-light H2-generation activity of 630 μmol h-1 g-1 (> 420 nm), which is among one of the most efficient metal-free g-C3N4 photocatalysts. This study demonstrates a bioinspired approach to the rational design of high-performance nanostructured visible-light photocatalysts.
AB - Inspired by the orderly stacked nanostructure and highly integrated function of thylakoids in a natural photosynthesis system, multishell g-C3N4 (MSCN) nanocapsule photocatalysts have been prepared by SiO2 hard template with different shell layers. The resultant triple-shell g-C3N4 (TSCN) nanocapsules display superior photocatalysis performance to single-shell and double-shell counterparts owing to excellent visible-light harvesting and electron transfer properties. Specially, with the increase of the shell layer number, light harvesting is greatly enhanced. There is an increase of the entire visible range absorption arising from the multiple scattering and reflection of the incident light within multishell nanoarchitectures as well as the light transmission within the porous thin shells, and an increase of absorption edge arising from the decreased quantum size effect. The electron transfer is greatly accelerated by the mesopores in the thin shells as nanoconduits and the high specific surface area of TSCN (310.7 m2 g-1). With the tailored hierarchical nanostructure features, TSCN exhibits a superior visible-light H2-generation activity of 630 μmol h-1 g-1 (> 420 nm), which is among one of the most efficient metal-free g-C3N4 photocatalysts. This study demonstrates a bioinspired approach to the rational design of high-performance nanostructured visible-light photocatalysts.
UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.6b08251
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018460322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsnano.6b08251
DO - 10.1021/acsnano.6b08251
M3 - Article
SN - 1936-086X
VL - 11
SP - 1103
EP - 1112
JO - ACS Nano
JF - ACS Nano
IS - 1
ER -