Synergy of Iron Doping and Cyano Groups for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>
Jie Xiao, Jingwen Zhang, Jiaxiang Zhang, Lun Pan, Chengxiang Shi, Xiangwen Zhang, Ji‐Jun Zou
Abstract
Abstract Improving the insufficient carrier separation dynamics is still of significance in carbon nitride (C 3 N 4 ) research. Extensive research has been devoted to improving the carrier separation efficiency through a single strategy, while ignoring the synergistic enhancement effect produced by coupling two or more conventional strategies. Herein, we reported the fabrication of cyano group‐containing Fe‐doped C 3 N 4 porous materials via direct co‐calcination of iron acetylacetonate and melamine for synergistically improving the photocatalytic performance. Iron acetylacetonate can promote the generation of cyano groups and form Fe‐doping in C 3 N 4 , thereby increasing the visible‐light absorption and reactive sites. Further, the internal donor‐acceptor system formed by cyano groups and Fe‐doped sites promoted charge carrier separation and inhibited the radiation recombination of e − ‐h + pairs. The optimized photocatalytic activity of Fe−CN‐2 sample was 4.5 times of bulk C 3 N 4 (BCN).