Artificial photosynthetic hydrogen evolution over g-C3N4 nanosheets coupled with cobaloxime

Abstract

We report an economic and noble-metal-free artificial photosynthetic system, consisting of g-C₃N₄ as a photosensitizer and a photocatalyst, and cobaloxime as a co-catalyst, for H₂ generation. This system allows for effective electron transfer from excited g-C₃N₄ to Co^III(dmgH)₂pyCl to generate reduced cobaloxime intermediate species for efficient H₂ evolution. Transient fluorescence studies reveal that the presence of cobaloxime and TEOA promotes the population of excited electrons to transfer from g-C₃N₄, which is responsible for the high photocatalytic activity of this g-C₃N₄–cobaloxime conjugation system.