Electron-deficient naphthalenediimides modified g-C3N4 for boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution in freshwater and seawater

Construction of a proper electron donor-acceptor (D-A) microenvironment through introducing a suitable chemical moiety is an effective strategy to facilitate photogenerated charge transfer in a cascade step actively, which can boost the corresponding photocatalytic performance significantly. Herein, a series of naphthalenediimide ( NDI y ), possessing unique electron-deficient aromatic imides, were introduced to prepare D-A structured g -C 3 N 4 ( CN ) derivative hybrid photocatalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) from water splitting. Remarkably, the modification with NDI y all significantly improved the PHE performance, in which 1%NDI NH2 @CN exhibits the best photocatalytic activity (14.57 mmolꞏg −1 ꞏh −1 ), exceeding 5.6 times over the unmodified pure CN under the same conditions. The enhanced PHE activity is highly associated with the interfacial D-A interactions between NDI y and CN , which also lays the foundation for the further rational design of analogs toward various types of photocatalytic reactions.