Self-catalysed breakdown of titanate nanotubes by graphitic carbon nitride resulting in enhanced hydrogen production

Efficient design of a photocatalyst is an important step in realizing real world applications. In this work, using in-situ catalysis we have prepared and investigated a titanate nanotube (TiNT)/ graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite, which after optimization shows excellent hydrogen production efficiency of 2.3 mmolg⁻¹h⁻¹, much improved compared to GCN, which achieved a rate of 0.56 mmolg⁻¹h⁻¹. We can conclude that pyrolysis of urea to carbon nitride also self catalyses the breakdown of TiNT into anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles, resulting in a nanocomposite material comprising TiO₂ and heterojunctions with GCN. After heating and modification the TiO₂ shows a conduction band edge with a more negative potential than the H⁺/H₂ potential, which along with the ideal position of the GCN CB edge facilitates hydrogen production under light irradiation. This novel method can be viewed as a general method for improving catalysis synthesis and design, whilst simultaneously reducing the complexity and energy footprint of active catalyst synthesis.