Heterojunctions of halogen-doped carbon nitride nanosheets and BiOI for sunlight-driven water-splitting

A fluorine-doped, chlorine-intercalated carbon nitride (CNF-Cl) photocatalyst has been synthesized for simultaneous improvements in light harvesting capability along with suppression of charge recombination in bulk g-C₃N₄. The formation of heterojunctions of these CNF-Cl nanosheets with low bandgap, earth abundant bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) was achieved, and the synthesized heterojunctions were tested as active photoanodes in photoelectrochemical water splitting experiments. BiOI/CNF-Cl heterojunctions exhibited extended light harvesting with a band-edge of 680 nm and generated photocurrent densities approaching 1.3 mA cm^-2under AM1.5 G one sun illumination. Scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy under optical bias showed a surface potential of 207 mV for the 50% BiOI/CNF-Cl nanocomposite, while pristine CNF-Cl and BiOI had surface photopotential values of 83 mV and 98 mV, respectively, which in turn, provided direct evidence of superior charge separation in the heterojunction blends. Enhanced charge carrier separation and improved light harvesting capability in BiOI/CNF-Cl hybrids were found to be the dominant factors in increased photocurrent, compared to the pristine constituent materials.