Activating Pd nanoparticles on sol-gel prepared porous g-C3N4/SiO2 via enlarging the Schottky barrier for efficient dehydrogenation of formic acid

A highly active heterogeneous catalyst, Pd nanoparticles@g-C3N4/SiO2 with tunable band structure, was successfully fabricated by a sol-gel method. The nanocomposite catalyst exhibits an extraordinary hydrogen production rate from formic acid which leads to a high turnover frequency (TOF) of around 306 mol H-2 per mole Pd per h after 10 min. The characterization analysis shows that the bandgap of the g-C3N4/SiO2 support widens with decreasing synthesis temperature, which in turn allows tuning of the band structure by simply controlling the synthesis temperature. After Pd nanoparticles were embedded, the nanocomposite Pd@g-C3N4/SiO2 showed excellent catalytic performance in the dehydrogenation of formic acid at 303.15 K, and the lower the synthesis temperature of the catalyst, the higher its performance.