2-benzothiazolamine-mediated D-A engineering of tubular carbon nitride for advanced photocatalytic hydrogen production.

The insufficient photogenerated charge separation efficiency and low light absorption capacity of carbon nitride (CN) limit the production efficiency of hydrogen. Grafting organic small molecules onto CN to construct a donor-acceptor (D-A) system is an effective strategy for enhancing the photocatalytic performance. This work constructed a fully organic D-A material by grafting 2-benzothiazolamine (BZM) onto tubular CN (TCN) to alter the band structure of TCN. The all-organic D-A system disrupts the structural symmetry of CN and forms new charge transfer pathways, thereby accelerating intermolecular electron separation and transfer. The results of the photocatalytic hydrogen production experiment show that the photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of TCN-BZM0.3 reaches 4.11 mmol g-1 h-1 and exhibits good photocatalytic stability. This work investigates the facilitating effect of D-A structures on charge transfer and elucidates the corresponding photocatalytic mechanism, thereby providing valuable insights into the rational design of highly efficient organic photocatalysts.