Hydrogen fuel is essential for the future of sustainable energy, as it generates electricity with only heat and water as byproducts. Typical synthesis methods of H2 gas are energy intensive and require the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is ideal for producing H2 which is driven by solar energy. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is an inexpensive and non-toxic 2D semiconductor material that can be exploited as a photosensitizer in photocatalytic reactions. Bulk g-C3N4 is not an efficient photocatalyst for HER, as it does not obtain the proper bandgap. Inducing defects into the structure of g-C3N4 is an alternative modification strategy to enhance the photocatalytic HER performance over the g-C3N4 catalyst. We compared HER performance of defective g-C3N4 with non-defective g-C3N4 to prove the process of inducing defects improves catalytic performance. The defective g-C3N4 was characterized and confirmed by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. A further investigation of defect concentration as it relates to catalytic activity was executed. Experimental results show that defect plays a critical role in photocatalytic HER over g-C3N4 catalysts. In future work, we plan to intercalate transition metal single atom catalysts into the defective carbon nitride complex, producing larger binding sites for the metal. This new catalyst will allow for future applications in carbon dioxide reduction.
