Surface modification induced construction of core-shell homojunction of polymeric carbon nitride for boosted photocatalytic performance

Surface modification has been considered a simple and effective strategy to enhance the photocatalytic activity of polymeric carbon nitride (CN), but resultant difference of energy band structures between the modified surface layer and the unmodified inside in the sample has always been neglected. Herein, maleoyl-modified CN (MaCN) was simply prepared via a dehydration reaction between CN and maleic acid, and exhibits enhanced charge separation, optical absorption, and thus photocatalytic hydrogen evo-lution activity, relative to the bulk CN. The surface modification causes variation of the band structure, suggesting the difference of band levels between the surface layer with maleoyl-modification and the inside without any modification in MaCN, and the surface layer and the inside with matched band levels form type-II core-shell homojunction to enhance the charge separation. This work expounds a conceptual framework of core-shell homojunction in surface-modified CN photocatalysts. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.