Synergetic effect of bismuth vanadate over copolymerized carbon nitride composites for highly efficient photocatalytic H2 and O2 generation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.07.012
• Publication Date: 2022-07-14T11:48:40Z
• Authors: Asif Hayat; Muhammad Sohail; T.A. Taha; Sunil Kumar Babur...; Abdullah G. Al-Se...; Ahmed A. Al-Ghamdi; W.I. Nawawi; Arkom Palamanit; Mohammed A. Amin; Ahmed M. Fallatah; Zeeshan Ajmal; Hamid Ali; Wasim Ullah Khan; Muhammad Wajid Shah; Javid Khan; S. Wageh
• Keywords: Bismuth vanadate; Nanorod; Charge carrier; Carbon nitride; Graphitic carbon nitride; Bismuth; Quantum yield

The development of copolymerized carbon nitride (CN)-based photocatalysts may support advances in photocatalytic overall water splitting. However, the recombination of charge carriers is the main bottleneck that reduces its overall photocatalytic activity. To overcome this problem, the construction of heterojunction technology has emerged as an effective approach to reduce the charge carrier recombination, thereby improving charge separation and transport efficiency. In this work, an innovative heterojunction was prepared between Quinolinic acid (QA) modified CN (CN-QAx) and novel nanorod-shaped bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) (BiVO4/CN-QAx) for overall water splitting through a simple in-situ solvent evaporation technique. The obtained results show that the synthesized samples have efficient and improved activities for releasing H2 (862.1 μmol/h) and O2 (31.58 μmol/h) under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, an exceptional apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 64.52 % has been recorded for BiVO4/CN-QA7.0 at 420 nm, which might be due to the substantial isolation of photoinducedcharge carriers. Therefore, this work opens up a new channel toward efficient CN-based photocatalysts in the sustainable energy production processes.