Facile synthesis of rod-like g-C3N4 by decorating Mo2C co-catalyst for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Designing and optimizing visible-light-driven photocatalyst with cost-efficiency and high performance is very imperative and highly challenging for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, g-C₃N₄/Mo₂C hybrid photocatalyst with one dimensional (1D) heterostructure for highly enhanced photocatalytic H₂ generation activity were obtained by a facile two step processing, in which Mo₂C nanoparticles were highly dispersed on rod-like g-C₃N₄ surface. Attributed to the synergistic effect of 1D structure and Mo₂C co-catalyst, the resultant g-C₃N₄/Mo₂C sample exhibits an impressive visible-light photocatalytic H₂ production rate of up to 507 μmol·h⁻¹·g⁻¹ and quantum efficiencies of 3.74% at 420 nm, which is 9.8 times higher than that of bulk g-C₃N₄, indicating that decorating Mo₂C as co-catalysts on the surface of g-C₃N₄ leads to the improved visible light absorption, promoted charge separation and enhanced the following H₂-evolution rate. Moreover, the mechanism for the photocatalytic activity enhancement was also discussed. This study provides a guide for researchers to design efficient g-C₃N₄-based hybrid photocatalysts with excellent stability and photocatalytic activity during the photoreaction process.