A butterfly shaped organic heterojunction photocatalyst for effective photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Asif Hayat; Muhammad Sohail; T. A. Taha; Asma M. Alenad; Ahmad Irfan; Naghma Shaishta; Ashiq Hayat; Sunil Kumar Baburao Mane; Wasim Ullah Khan

doi:10.1039/D1CE00405K

A butterfly shaped organic heterojunction photocatalyst for effective photocatalytic CO₂ reduction†

Asif Hayat,

‡^a Muhammad Sohail,‡^b T. A. Taha,

^cd Asma M. Alenad,^e Ahmad Irfan,^f Naghma Shaishta,^g Ashiq Hayat,^h Sunil Kumar Baburao Mane

*ⁱ and Wasim Ullah Khan

*^j

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, P. R. China

^b Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, P. R. China

^c Physics Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box: 2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia

^d Physics and Engineering Mathematics Department, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, Menouf, Egypt

^e Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia

^f Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia

^g Department of Post-graduate Studies and Research in Chemistry, Gulbarga University, Gulbarga, India

^h Department of Physics, Quaid Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

ⁱ Department of Chemistry, Khaja Bandanawz University, Gulbarga, India
E-mail: sunilkumar.bmane@gmail.com

^j State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P. R. China
E-mail: wasimullah89@yahoo.com

Abstract

The modification of carbon nitride (CN) for visible light photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is an important issue to explore in the context of energy and environmental challenges. The current work describes the fabrication of a butterfly-shaped photocatalyst derived from a heterojunction between the electron-rich organic monomer 2,5-dibromothiophene (TP) and a CN framework via copolymerization (UCN-TP). The successful incorporation of TP within CN means that it acts as a nucleophilic spare entity that provides electron solidity (π-conjugation) via charge allocation and increases the photocatalytic activity of CN (under visible light illumination). Density functional theory (DFT) data provide additional information on the amalgamation of TP inside CN and the reduced band gap. The best sample UCN-TP_0.06 generated 68.18 μmole of CO and 18.52 μmole of H₂ by photoreduction, demonstrating the highest photocatalytic activity. Moreover, this remarkable modification of the chemical configuration, band gap and surface area encouraged the good detachment of light-produced photons, thereby rendering it the best candidate for the photoreduction of CO₂.

This article is part of the themed collection: Nanomaterials

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CE00405K
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 26 Mar 2021
Accepted: 06 May 2021
First published: 01 Jun 2021

Download Citation

CrystEngComm, 2021,23, 4963-4974

Permissions

Request permissions

A butterfly shaped organic heterojunction photocatalyst for effective photocatalytic CO₂ reduction

A. Hayat, M. Sohail, T. A. Taha, A. M. Alenad, A. Irfan, N. Shaishta, A. Hayat, S. K. B. Mane and W. U. Khan, CrystEngComm, 2021, 23, 4963 DOI: 10.1039/D1CE00405K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

CrystEngComm