LAYERED DOUBLE HYDROXIDE (LDH)-BASED MATERIALS AND IT’S APPLICATION ON PHOTOCATALYTIC WATER SPLITTING

Photocatalytic water splitting is a prominent source of green hydrogen generation. Fujishima and Honda developed TiO2 photocatalyst first time then many advancements done in this field. We had developed many photocatalytic systems based on ZnO and CeO2 based materials, plasmonic materials, solid solution, g-C3N4-based and graphene-based materials. Due to its remarkable structural and electrical properties, moderate band gap of 2.72 eV, low cost, low toxicity, low solubility, and high photostability, g-C3N4 has established itself as a notable member of the carbonaceous materials with enormous potential for optoelectronic applications. In addition to their wide range of applications in highly efficient photocatalytic processes, this material has a few drawbacks, including low specific surface area, low dielectric constants, low charge transfer, low coulombic interactions, slow kinetics, and low light harvesting power. The morphology engineering (change in shape and size), structure (functional group and defect engineering), surface (cocatalyst and plasmonic effect), and interface (homojunction and heterojunction) advancement levels of g-C3N4 hold the keys to solving the problems. Because of the similarities between the layered materials, g-C3N4 is among the best options for coupling with layered double hydroxide (LDH). The two-dimensional (2D) LDHs or hydrotalcite-like compounds used to be expressed as [M2+1-x M3+x (OH)2]X+[Ax/n]n−.mH2O with a portion of the divalent metal cations (like Mg2+, Fe2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Ni2+ or Zn2+) that were coordinated octahedrally by hydroxyl groups replaced isomorphously by the trivalent metal cations (like Al3+, Cr3+, Ga3+, In3+, Mn3+or Fe3+), resulting in positively charged layers. Additionally, the support of extremely stable g-C3N4 through its delocalized conjugated π-structure, which has a high charge separation efficiency and a low charge recombination rate, can further enhance the chemical stability and photocatalytic activity of the LDH. Coupling of LDH with g-C3N4 is good approach for the overall photocatalytic water splitting. Here, we proposed the synthesis of well-functionalized g-C3N4-based systems through doping(metal/nonmetal), making composite with various materials i.e. LDH materials and analyzes the as-synthesized systems via Surface and lattice studies via advance techniques (FESEM, HRTEM, EDX, XANES, EXAFS, Raman, AFM, XPS, EIS, ESR, SPV, FTIR, UV-Vis, (DSR), steady state and time-dependent PLE) and In-house & synchronized XRD refinements, BET, etc). As-synthesized materials will be applied for hydrogen generation via splitting of water. This green hydrogen used as fuel to replace the conventional fuel.