Self-Sensitized Carbon Nitride Microspheres for Long-Lasting Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Generation

A new type of metal-free photocatalyst is reported having a microsphere core of oxygen-containing carbon nitride and self-sensitized surfaces by covalently linked polymeric triazine dyes. These self-sensitized carbon nitride microspheres exhibit high visible-light activities in photocatalytic H₂ generation with excellent stability for more than 100 h reaction. Comparing to the traditional g-C₃N₄ with activities terminated at 450 nm, the polymeric triazine dyes on the carbon nitride microsphere surface allow for effective wide-range visible-light harvesting and extend the H₂ generation activities up to 600 nm. It is believed that this new type of highly stable self-sensitized metal-free structure opens a new direction of future development of low-cost photocatalysts for efficient and long-term solar fuels production.