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Updated: Aug 14, 2025

Developing Photosensitizer-Cobaloxime Hybrids for Solar-Driven H2 Production in Aqueous Aerobic Conditions
Published on: October 5, 2019
Controlled Synthesis of Nitro-Terminated Oligothiophene/Crystallinity-Improved g-C3N4 Heterojunctions for Enhanced
Yong Li1,2, Xulong Pang1, Qi Zhao1
1Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry (Ministry of Education), School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
It is highly desired to explore closely contacted polymer semiconductor/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalysts with promoted photogenerated-carrier separation and extended visible-light response for efficient visible-light-driven H2 production. Here, we first synthesized the nitro-terminated oligothiophene (OTh) by the controlled copolymerization of thiophene and 2-nitrothiophene monomers, then constructed the nitro-terminated oligothiophene/crystallinity-improved g-C3N4 (OTh/g-C3N4) heterojunctions by a grinding-induced combination strategy. The ratio-optimized 20OTh5/g-C3N4 shows highly efficient H2 production activity up to 3.63 mmol h-1 g-1 under visible-light irradiation, with ∼25.9-time enhancement compared to that of g-C3N4. As verified by time-resolved photoluminescence spectra, surface photovoltage spectra, and the fluorescence spectra related to •OH amounts, the improved photocatalytic activity is due to the promoted photogenerated-carrier transfer and separation in the heterojunctions and the expanded visible-light response. It is also confirmed that the controlled OTh chain length, improved g-C3N4 crystallinity, and tight interface contact dependent on the hydrogen bonds and N···S interactions between OTh and g-C3N4 are reasonable for enhanced photogenerated-carrier separation with the electron transfer from OTh to g-C3N4. This work illustrates a feasible strategy to construct efficient polymer semiconductor/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalysts for solar-light-driven H2 production.
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