Bandgap Engineering of Melon using Highly Reduced Graphene Oxide for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

Muhammad Ashraf, Roshan Ali, Ibrahim Khan, Nisar Ullah, Muhammad Sohail Ahmad, Tetsuya Kida, Sanghyuk Wooh, Wolfgang Tremel*, Udo Schwingenschlögl*, Muhammad Nawaz Tahir*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The uncondensed form of polymeric carbon nitrides (PCN), generally known as melon, is a stacked 2D structure of poly(aminoimino)heptazine. Melon is used as a photocatalyst in solar energy conversion applications, but suffers from poor photoconversion efficiency due to weak optical absorption in the visible spectrum, high activation energy, and inefficient separation of photoexcited charge carriers. Experimental and theoretical studies are reported to engineer the bandgap of melon with highly reduced graphene oxide (HRG). Three HRG@melon nanocomposites with different HRG:melon ratios (0.5%, 1%, and 2%) are prepared. The 1% HRG@melon nanocomposite shows higher photocurrent density (71 µA cm−2) than melon (24 µA cm−2) in alkaline conditions. The addition of a hole scavenger further increases the photocurrent density to 630 µA cm−2 relative to the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). These experimental results are validated by calculations using density functional theory (DFT), which revealed that HRG results in a significant charge redistribution and an improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).

Original languageEnglish
Article number2301342
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume35
Issue number47
DOIs
StatePublished - 23 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Keywords

  • 2D materials
  • HRG@melon
  • PEC water splitting
  • hydrogen evolution
  • melon

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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