Nitrogen vacancy induced in situ g-C₃N₄ p-n homojunction for boosting visible light-driven hydrogen evolution

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) as a novel photocatalyst with great potentials has been extensively employed in solar-driven energy conversion. Herein, the novel in situ g-C₃N₄ p-n homojunction photocatalyst with nitrogen vacancies (NV-g-C₃N₄) is successfully fabricated via hydrothermal synthesis followed by two-step calcination. The in situ NV-g-C₃N₄ homojunction can be employed as an effective photocatalyst for hydrogen generation through water splitting under visible light, and the optimum rate constant of 3259.1 μmol^.g^-1.h^-1 is achieved, which is 8.7 times as high as that of pristine g-C₃N₄. Moreover, the markedly increased photocatalytic performance is ascribed to the enhanced light utilization, large specific surface area and unique nitrogen-vacated p-n homojunction structure, which provides more active sites and improves the separation of photo-excited electron-hole pairs. Besides, the underlying mechanism for efficient charge transportation and separation is also proposed. This work demonstrates that the remodeling of g-C₃N₄ p-n homojunction with nitrogen vacancies is a feasible way as highly efficient photocatalysts and might inspire some new strategies for energy and environmental applications.