Design of earth-abundant Z-scheme g-C 3 N 4 /rGO/FeOOH ternary heterojunctions with excellent photocatalytic activity

• Published in: CrystEngComm Vol. 23; no. 9; pp. 1991 - 1998
• Main Authors: Arif, Nayab, Wang, Zhao-Xu, Wang, Yan-Tao, Dou, Yi-Chuan, Li, Kui, Liu, Shi-Quan, Liu, Fu-Tian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 08.03.2021
• ISSN: 1466-8033; 1466-8033
• DOI: 10.1039/D1CE00045D

Iron is one of the most abundant elements on the surface of the earth (5.1%), but is rarely used for photocatalytic hydrogen production due to its unsuitable band structure. Herein, a ternary Z-scheme g-C 3 N 4 /rGO/FeOOH heterostructure photocatalyst for hydrogen production was designed and fabricated. Due to its narrow bandgap and a low oxygen evolution overpotential of FeOOH, the Z-scheme g-C 3 N 4 /rGO/FeOOH ternary heterojunction exhibited excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production with the yields of 124.9 and 869.8 μmol h −1 g −1 (244.9 and 107.4 times larger than that of pristine g-C 3 N 4 ) under visible and UV-visible light irradiation, respectively. This work could expand the usage of the earth-abundant element for solar energy conversion and provide a new viewpoint for the development of high-performance photocatalysts through a rational design of the component of the heterostructure.