Partially cross-linked carbon nitride with unimpeded charge transfer between different chains for boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production.

A heptazine-based, partially cross-linked carbon nitride (PC-CN) was successfully prepared via a solid-chloride-salt-assisted polycondensation method. The cross-linking favors the charge transport between different chains, thus dramatically boosting the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of PC-CN, up to 29.3 times that of traditional 1D-CN.

Fabrication and photocatalytic property of magnetic SrTiO3/NiFe2O4 heterojunction nanocomposites.

Novel multifunctional SrTiO3/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites were successfully fabricated via a two-step route. The as-prepared samples were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), field-emission transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The results indicate that the SrTiO3/NiFe2O4 heterostructures are composed of SrTiO3 spheroidal nanoparticles adhered to NiFe2O4 polyhedra. The heterojunction established in the composite material accelerates the process of electron-hole pair separation and boosts the photo-Fenton reaction. Among the samples, 15 wt% SrTiO3/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites exhibit a powerful light response and excellent room temperature ferromagnetism. Subsequently, the photocatalytic degradation of RhB over the as-prepared samples was investigated and optimized, revealing that the 15 wt% SrTiO3/NiFe2O4 nanocomposites exhibit the best photocatalytic activity and stability under simulated solar light irradiation. Furthermore, according to experimental results, the possible mechanism of improved photocatalytic activity was also proposed.