2D heterostructure comprised of metallic 1T-MoS2/Monolayer O-g-C3N4 towards efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 220; pp. 379 - 385
• Main Authors: Xu, Hui, Yi, Jianjian, She, Xiaojie, Liu, Qin, Song, Li, Chen, Shuangming, Yang, Yingchao, Song, Yanhua, Vajtai, Robert, Lou, Jun, Li, Huaming, Yuan, Shouqi, Wu, Jingjie, Ajayan, Pulickel M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2018
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2017.08.035

[Display omitted] •1. Developing new materials for photocatalytic H2 evolution, like 1T-MoS2/O-g-C3N4 2D heterostructures.•2. A few 1T-MoS2 can significantly improve the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of O-g-C3N4.•3. The activity of 2D heterostructures far exceeds the performance using Pt as co-catalyst at low content.•4. 1T-MoS2/O-g-C3N4 2D heterostructure shows the high external quantum efficiency and TOF. Efficient separation of hole-electron pair plays a crucial role in enhancing photocatalytic water splitting activity, which essentially requires a noble metal co-catalyst. Here we report that two-dimensional (2D) metallic 1T-MoS2 can exceed the performance of noble metal like Pt as a co-catalyst in assisting the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over 2D semiconductor such as oxygenated monolayer graphitic carbon nitride (O-g-C3N4). The abundance of intrinsic active site for hydrogen evolution reaction for 1T-MoS2 partly contributes to the outstanding performance of 1T-MoS2/O-g-C3N4 system. More importantly, the 2D heterostructure junction of 2D metals-2D semiconductor through van der Waals interaction minimizes the Schottky barrier, which in turn improves the charge transfer efficiency. The optimal 1T-MoS2/O-g-C3N4 exhibited H2 evolution rate as high as ∼1841.72μmol/g/h, an external quantum efficiency of ∼7.11% at λ=420nm, and a super high TOF of 156.6h−1.