Ethanol Solvothermal Treatment on Graphitic Carbon Nitride Materials for Enhancing Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Performance

Recently, Pt-loaded graphic carbon nitride (g-C(3)N(4)) materials have attracted great attention as a photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution from water. The simple surface modification of g-C(3)N(4) by hydrothermal methods improves photocatalytic performance. In this study, ethanol is used as a solvothermal solvent to modify the surface properties of g-C(3)N(4) for the first time. The g-C(3)N(4) is thermally treated in ethanol at different temperatures (T = 140 °C, 160 °C, 180 °C, and 220 °C), and the Pt co-catalyst is subsequently deposited on the g-C(3)N(4) via a photodeposition method. Elemental analysis and XPS O 1s data confirm that the ethanol solvothermal treatment increased the contents of the oxygen-containing functional groups on the g-C(3)N(4) and were proportional to the treatment temperatures. However, the XPS Pt 4f data show that the Pt(2+)/Pt(0) value for the Pt/g-C(3)N(4) treated at ethanol solvothermal temperature of 160 °C (Pt/CN-160) is the highest at 7.03, implying the highest hydrogen production rate of Pt/CN-160 is at 492.3 μmol g(−1) h(−1) because the PtO phase is favorable for the water adsorption and hydrogen desorption in the hydrogen evolution process. In addition, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data and the photoluminescence spectra emission peak intensify reflect that the Pt/CN-160 had a more efficient charge separation process that also enhanced the photocatalytic activity.