Superior hydrophilic porous graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

The efficient photocatalysts may significantly assist to alleviate the shortage of non-renewable resources. Whereas, the hydrophilicity of the photocatalyst greatly contributes towards the hydrogen production reaction activity. In this work, we showcased the synthesis of hydrophilic porous carbon nitride (HCN) by mixing melamine with cyanuric acid using the molten salt method. Several comprehensive spectral characterizations demonstrate that the resulting hydrophilic porous structure is associated with the emergence of cyano group. Moreover, the water contact angle experiments confirmed the enhanced hydrophilicity. The hydrogen production rate of the sample obtained is up to 465.2 μmol g-1 h−1, which is 9.38 times higher than that of the pristine carbon nitride (PCN).