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Published on: October 5, 2019
Chlorophyll-Inspired Zinc-Phthalocyanine Nanodot Assembled g-C3N4 Composite for Efficient Visible-Light-Driven H2O2
Xufang Zhang1,2, Meng Ju1, Aiqin Hou1
1State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620 P. R. China.
Abstract:
Designing nanophotocatalysts with high photoreaction and efficient charge separation capability remains a major challenge. Inspired by the photochemical catalytic ability of natural chlorophyll, a zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) nanodot assembled graphitic carbon nitride composite (CN/ZnPc/CN) was designed. A four-arm cationic ZnPc molecule with a similar chlorophyll chemical structure was designed and prepared. The cationic ZnPc can self-assemble into nanodots by supramolecular π-π stacking. The ZnPc nanodots were embedded between two layers of g-C3N4 sheets. The carbon nitride composite assembled with ZnPc nanodots like chlorophyll can greatly improve the light-harvesting and charge-separation ability of the CN/ZnPc/CN material. Also, it greatly boosted the generation of the superoxide radical (•O2-). The H2O2 production of CN/ZnPc/CN2 was 114.00 μmol·L-1·h-1, which was 10 times of that of pure CN. The new strategy and nanostructure inspired by chlorophyll provide a new platform in the field of efficient photochemical synthesis and energy conversion.
