Organosilica-assisted superhydrophilic oxygen doped graphitic carbon nitride for improved photocatalytic H2 evolution

The regulation of surface wettability and heteroelement doping have been proved to be effective strategies to enhance photocatalytic H 2 evolution activity of graphitic carbon nitride (CN) based photocatalysts . Herein, we report, for the first time, an organosilica assisted method was adopted to synthesize the superhydrophilic oxygen doped graphitic carbon nitride ( O –CN). The presence of organosilica induced simultaneous oxygen-containing groups grafting and oxygen doping within carbon nitride substrate. The grafted oxygen-containing groups improved the surface hydrophilicity and water adsorption. Oxygen doping tailored electronic structure and localized electron distribution , contributing to extended visible light harvesting and elevated photoelectric conversion efficiency. As a result, the H 2 generation rate of O –CN photocatalyst was 5.4 times higher than that of pristine CN photocatalyst attributed to the formation of hydrophilic groups and the oxygen doping.