Graphitic carbon nitride nanoribbons: graphene-assisted formation and synergic function for highly efficient hydrogen evolution

The development of new promising metal-free catalysts is of great significance for the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a rationally assembled three-dimensional (3D) architecture of 1D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanoribbons with 2D graphene sheets has been developed by a one-step hydrothermal method. Because of the multipathway of charge and mass transport, the hierarchically structured g-C3N4 nanoribbon-graphene hybrids lead to a high electrocatalytic ability for HER with a Tafel slope of 54 mV decade(-1), a low onset overpotential of 80 mV and overpotential of 207 mV to approach a current of 10 mA cm(-2), superior to those non-metal materials and well-developed metallic catalysts reported previously. This work presents a great advance for designing and developing highly efficient metal-free catalyst for hydrogen evolution.