Tunable Photocatalytic Production of Syngas Using Co@C3N4 and Black Phosphorus

Photocatalytic syngas production is an attractive option to efficiently generate a feedstock for the Fischer-Tropsch processes that can produce liquid fuels and other chemicals. One-pot photocatalytic production of syngas (H-2+CO) with specific and controllable ratios of H-2/CO has proven to be a significant challenge to date. In this work, single Co2+ sites loaded onto carbon nitride (Co@C3N4) is combined with black phosphorus (BP) to form a hybrid material, which is capable of simultaneous photocatalytic evolution of H-2 and CO. H-2/CO syngas ratios can be controlled in the range from 0.30 to 5.16 by changing the % weight of BP in this system or by the addition of CoCl2 in the reaction solution. Maximum total gas evolution of 70 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) was achieved with 20 wt % BP (BP20%/Co@C3N4) at a H-2/CO ratio of 2.