Photocatalytic Generation of H2 by Photoreforming of Organics in Aqueous Suspension of Nb2o5/C3n4 Composites

Bare and composite materials based on C3N4 and Nb2O5 have been used as photocatalysts for the photoreforming of aqueous solutions of oxygenated compounds. Both Nb2O5 and Nb2O5/C3N4 composites have been prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and all of them were physical-chemically characterized. In this work two different carbon nitride species i.e. graphitic (g-C3N4) or thermo-etched (TE-C3N4) were used both alone or coupled with Nb2O5. The photo-reforming activity has been measured under UV irradiation by using the semiconductors in the presence of Pt as co-catalysts and, in the case of the best material, it was, for the first time, measured and compared also under natural solar irradiation. …