Ni-anchored g-C₃N₄for improved hydrogen evolution in photocatalysis

In this study, we present a facile wet chemical method for synthesizing Ni-modified polymeric carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheets. X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy reveals the formation of a unique Ni-N structure, resulting from Ni atoms anchoring in cavities of g-C₃N₄. The Ni anchoring on the surface N sites modifies the electronic structure of g-C₃N₄, demonstrating remarkable effectiveness even at low anchoring amounts. The as-prepared Ni/g-C₃N₄catalysts show robust performance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation, attributed to the unique Ni-N interactions. Specifically, the photocatalytic H₂production rate of the Ni/CN-45 catalyst reached 8482.14μmol·g^-1·h^-1with an apparent quantum efficiency of 0.75% under light irradiation at 427 nm. This rate surpasses most of the previously reported g-C₃N₄based photocatalysts and is nearly 8 times higher than that of the pure g-C₃N₄catalyst (1116.07μmol·g^-1·h^-1).