Photo-assisted splitting of water into hydrogen using visible-light activated silver doped g-C3N4 & CNTs hybrids

Herein, highly efficient and cost effective solar photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen (H-2) generation was achieved by modified g-C3N4. Visible light absorption of g-C3N4 was enhanced by decorating g-C3N4 matrix with silver nanoparticles (Ag). Moreover, incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in Ag/g-C3N4 facilitated photocatalytic performance through efficient separation and transfer of photogenerated e-h pairs (charges) in Ag/g-C3N4 that consequently generated very pure and significant H-2. Among several tested ratios (wt. %) of Ag/g-C3N4/CNTs, 1.82 (Ag/g-C3N4) and 2.00 (and Ag/g-C3N4/CNTs) were found to be highly efficient that harvested maximum visible-light and produced H-2 (4)1.48 mmol. and 1.78 mmol h(-1). We witnessed distinctive role of CNTs as an electron collector and carrier to separate photogenerated e-h pairs to facilitate photocatalysis for H-2 generation together with possible utility of Ag and CNTs doped materials with regard to energy transformation. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.