Hexagonal g-C3N4 nanotubes with Pt decorated surface towards enhanced photo- and electro-chemistry performance

Layered carbon nitride (g-C3N4), as a kind of organic semiconductor used in term of photocatalysis, has been a research hot topic. In this article, few layered hexagonal g-C3N4 nanotubes was synthesized using bulk g-C3N4 as a precursor, the morphology is uniform and reveals wonderful reproducibility. Furthermore, hexagonal nanotube morphology of g-C3N4 promotes the electron transform following z axis and effectively separates photogenerated electron and hole, resulting in an outstanding H2 evolution performance, which is about 14 times high compared with g-C3N4 under visible light. In addition, due to electron moved following z axis, electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activities also have been improved, especially for Pt modified hexagonal g-C3N4 nanotubes, its enhancement is eye-catching. Furthermore, the O-doped hexagonal g-C3N4 nanostructure could also obtained by using O-doped bulk g-C3N4 as precursor, and the photo- and electro-catalysis performance was further improved.