Templateless Infrared Heating Process for Fabricating Carbon Nitride Nanorods with Efficient Photocatalytic H2 Evolution

The bottom-up fabrication of carbon nitride nanorods is realized through the direct infrared heating of dicyandiamide. The approach requires no templates or extra organics. The controlled infrared heating has a major influence on the morphology of the obtained carbon nitrides. The precursors assemble into carbon nitride nanorods at low power levels, and they grow into nanoplates at high power levels. The formation mechanism of the carbon nitride nanorods is proposed to be a kinetically driven process, and the photocatalytic activity of the carbon nitride nanorods prepared at 50% power for hydrogen evolution is about 2.9 times that of carbon nitride nanoplates at 100% power. Structural, optical, and electronic analysis demonstrates that the enhancement is primarily attributed to the elimination of structural defects and the improved charge-carrier separation in highly condensed and oriented carbon nitride nanorods.