Surface modification with oxygen doping of g-C3N4 nanoparticles by carbon vacancy for efficient dehydrogenation of sodium borohydride in methanol

g-C3N4, which is used in different catalytic activities, was applied to the H2 field from NaBH4 methanolysis for the first time in this study. The development of g-C3N4 is necessary to make it a viable alternative to the heterogeneous catalysts currently used in this field. The g-C3N4 used in this study contains both carbon vacancies and oxygen doping atoms. Compared to the g-C3N4 catalyst, the O doped g-C3N4 catalyst obtained showed an approximately 3.4-fold improvement in H2 production. The HGR value obtained with O doped g-C3N4 (5 mg) was 10800 ml min−1 g−1. The structural properties of the obtained catalysts were characterized by XPS, SEM-EDX, TEM, FTIR, Raman, BET and XRD analyses. These analyses showed significant changes for O doped g-C3N4. The activation energy obtained for O doped g-C3N4 was approximately 36.13 kJ mol−1.