Abstract
Energy scarcity and environmental issues can be effectively addressed via photocatalytic hydrogen production. The effective combination of semiconductor materials can prevent exciton recombination, making it a highly effective method for enhancing photocatalytic activity. This study details the synthesis of a conjugated polymer encapsulated with a metal oxide photocatalyst using a simple ex situ method. The encapsulation of the polymer with CeO2 nanoparticles resulted in exceptional performance in H2 production, exhibiting improved visible light absorption and a significant increase in charge transfer efficiency. This is attributed to the high charge transfer and reduced recombination in the composite. Moreover, photogenerated holes led to a substantial decline in the recombination rate of excitons and concomitant enhancement in the rate of photocatalytic H2 production. Markedly, the observed hydrogen evolution for 10 wt% of CeO2 doped C3N5 composites is 1256 μmol g−1 h−1, whereas for C3N5, it is 125 μmol g−1 h−1. Electrochemical analysis showed that the optimized composites exhibit a low electron-hole recombination rate, and UV-vis spectroscopic analysis showed improved visible light absorption resulting in excellent photocatalytic activity. Notably, the proposed system offers a novel strategy for hydrogen evolution via photocatalysis using CeO2/C3N5 composites. Consequently, this research offers a new perspective on the design of organo-inorganic heterostructures and introduces a novel pathway to explore their catalytic capabilities.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2604-2612 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Energy Advances |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2024 Sept 3 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 RSC.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Fuel Technology
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology
- Energy (miscellaneous)