The Design of Supramolecular Assemblies with Metal Salt as Precursors Enables The Growth of Stable Polymeric Carbon Nitride Photoanodes

Devesh Garg, Tirza Shmila, Gabriel Mark, Sanjit Mondal, Venugopala Rao Battula, Michael Volokh, Menny Shalom

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Polymeric carbon nitrides (CN) have gained significant interest as photoanodes in photoelectrochemical cells (PEC). A widely researched approach for synthesizing CN films with controlled optical and photoelectrochemical properties relies on using supramolecular assemblies as the precursors for thermal polymerization over a transparent conductive substrate. However, the formation of supramolecular assemblies is highly dependent on the temperature and solubility in a given solvent, limiting the full potential of this method. Moreover, the intercalation of metal ions is challenging due to the use of polar solvents. Here, this study shows a new way of synthesizing supramolecular assemblies with metal ions using a solvothermal approach. The solvent, monomer composition, salt quantity, reaction temperature, and film thickness are varied in this study. As a result, well-attached, uniform CN films with good optoelectronic properties are achieved. The synthesized photoactive CN films exhibit very low onset potentials and reach ≈0.13, ≈0.15, and 0.30 ± 0.01 mA cm−2 photocurrents in 0.1 m phosphate buffer (neutral) solution, 0.1 m KOH(aq) (basic) solution, and 0.1 m KOH solution containing 10 vol.% triethanolamine as the hole scavenger, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2300447
JournalAdvanced Sustainable Systems
Volume8
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Apr 2024

Keywords

  • carbon nitride
  • photoelectrochemical cell
  • supramolecular assemblies
  • water-splitting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Environmental Science

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