Enhanced visible-light-driven co-production of H2 and value-added chemicals over AgCl/crystalline carbon nitride with N defects

AgCl nanoparticles are in-situ loaded on crystalline carbon nitride (CCN) with N defects by a molten salt method to develope a novel bifunctional composite (AgCl/CCN) photocatalyst for the coupled reaction of proton reduction for H2 production in water with benzylamine selective oxidative coupling. The coupled strategy can not only effectively improve hydrogen production, but also effectively utilize the photogenerated holes to obtain useful high value-added oxidation product N-benzylidenebenzylamine, which achieves a “win-win” result. The high crystallinity and extended π-conjugated system of CCN and the introduction of N-defects can effectively promote the charge transfer and thus inhibit the radiative charge recombination. Moreover, the energy levels of AgCl and CCN are matched to form a heterostructure, which further promotes the charge transfer and significantly improves the efficiency of coupled photocatalysis.