American Chemical Society (ACS)
ACS applied materials & interfaces
,  volume 17 ,  issue 34 ,  pages 48941-48955

Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study

Abinash Das 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
, 
Shriya Gumber 7, 8
, 
Nitai C. Maji 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
, 
Shashi B Mishra 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
, 
M. Preethi 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
, 
Preethi M 3, 4
, 
Pujita Ningthoukhongjam 21, 22
, 
Ranjith G. Nair 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
, 
T Abhijith 27, 28
, 
Elena A Kazakova 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34
, 
Mariya A Kazakova 31, 32
, 
Andrey S Vasenko 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40
, 
Madhumitha R 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
, 
Oleg Prezhdo 7, 8, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47
1
 
Solar Fuel Research Group (SFRG)
2
 
3
 
Solar Fuel Research Group (SFRG), Coimbatore, India | 
4
 
5
 
Solar Fuel Research Group (SFRG), Coimbatore, India | 
6
 
7
 
Department of Chemistry, Los Angeles, United States | 
8
 
9
 
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology
10
 
11
 
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Varanasi, India | 
12
 
13
 
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Varanasi, India | 
14
 
15
 
Department of Physics and Astronomy
16
 
17
 
Department of Physics and Astronomy, New York, United States | 
18
 
19
 
Department of Physics and Astronomy, New York, United States | 
20
 
21
 
Solar Energy Materials Research and Testing Laboratory, Department of Physics, Silchar, Cachar, India | 
22
 
23
 
Solar Energy Materials Research and Testing Laboratory, Department of Physics
24
 
25
 
Solar Energy Materials Research and Testing Laboratory, Department of Physics, Silchar, Cachar, India | 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY
30
 
31
 
Department of Biochemistry, Moscow, Russia | 
32
 
33
 
Department of Biochemistry, Moscow, Russia | 
34
 
35
 
36
 
37
 
38
 
39
 
40
 
41
 
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
42
 
43
 
Department of Physics & Astronomy
44
 
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Los Angeles, United States | 
45
 
Department of Chemistry, Los Angeles, United States | 
46
 
47
 
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Los Angeles, United States | 
Publication type: Journal Article
Publication date: 2025-08-12
American Chemical Society (ACS)
scimago Q1
wos Q1
SJR: 1.921
CiteScore: 14.5
Impact factor: 8.2
ISSN: 19448244, 19448252
Abstract
Nanohybrid catalysts hold great promise for photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis, with significant progress still to be made. We synthesize a graphitic carbon nitride (GCN)-CeO2 heterojunction via electrostatic self-assembly. Characterization confirms that CeO2 nanocubes are uniformly anchored onto layered GCN, forming a high-quality interface with abundant active sites. This architecture facilitates efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers and an improved optical response, as further supported by density functional theory and finite-difference time-domain simulations, which reveal a modified band structure and optical response at the type-II heterojunction interface. The resulting hybrid exhibits excellent water splitting performance, with a photocurrent density of 5.70 mA cm-2 at a low onset potential of 0.43 V vs Ag/AgCl. The GCN-CeO2 photocatalyst shows an enhanced hydrogen evolution rate of 809.23 μmol g-1 h-1, which is 6.7 times higher than that of pure CeO2 and 3.2 times higher than that of the GCN photocatalyst. The reported findings highlight the promising potential of electrostatic self-assembly as an effective strategy for the development of efficient catalysts for solar fuel production.
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Das A. et al. Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study // ACS applied materials & interfaces. 2025. Vol. 17. No. 34. pp. 48941-48955.
GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy
Das A. et al. Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study // ACS applied materials & interfaces. 2025. Vol. 17. No. 34. pp. 48941-48955.
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TY - JOUR
DO - 10.1021/acsami.5c10272
UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.5c10272
TI - Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study
T2 - ACS applied materials & interfaces
AU - Das, Abinash
AU - Gumber, Shriya
AU - Maji, Nitai C.
AU - Mishra, Shashi B
AU - Preethi, M.
AU - M, Preethi
AU - Ningthoukhongjam, Pujita
AU - Nair, Ranjith G.
AU - Abhijith, T
AU - Kazakova, Elena A
AU - Kazakova, Mariya A
AU - Vasenko, Andrey S
AU - R, Madhumitha
AU - Prezhdo, Oleg
PY - 2025
DA - 2025/08/12
PB - American Chemical Society (ACS)
SP - 48941-48955
IS - 34
VL - 17
SN - 1944-8244
SN - 1944-8252
ER -
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@article{2025_Das,
author = {Abinash Das and Shriya Gumber and Nitai C. Maji and Shashi B Mishra and M. Preethi and Preethi M and Pujita Ningthoukhongjam and Ranjith G. Nair and T Abhijith and Elena A Kazakova and Mariya A Kazakova and Andrey S Vasenko and Madhumitha R and Oleg Prezhdo and others},
title = {Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study},
journal = {ACS applied materials & interfaces},
year = {2025},
volume = {17},
publisher = {American Chemical Society (ACS)},
month = {aug},
url = {https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.5c10272},
number = {34},
pages = {48941--48955},
doi = {10.1021/acsami.5c10272}
}
MLA
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Das, Abinash, et al. “Electrostatic Self-Assembly-Driven Heterojunction of Cubic CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting: A Hybrid Experimental and Theoretical Study.” ACS applied materials & interfaces, vol. 17, no. 34, Aug. 2025, pp. 48941-48955. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.5c10272.