Achieving Efficient Incorporation of π-Electrons into Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Markedly Improved Hydrogen Generation

A rapid and highly efficient strategy for introducing C into g-C ₃ N ₄ involves copolymerizing π-electron-rich barbituric acid with melamine via a facile microwave-assisted heating, thereby eliminating the issues in conventional electric furnace heating, such as the severe volatilization, owing to the mismatch of the sublimation temperatures of barbituric acid and melamine. The g-C ₃ N ₄ catalyst after optimizing the C-doping content actively generates increased amounts of H ₂ under visible light exposure with the highest H ₂ generation rate of 25.0 μmol h ⁻¹ , which is nearly 20 times above that using g-C ₃ N ₄ produced by conventional electric furnace heating of two identical monomers (1.3 μmol h ⁻¹ ). As such, the microwave-assisted heating strategy may stand out as an extremely simple route to incorporating π-electrons into g-C ₃ N ₄ with markedly improved photocatalytic performance.