Assembly-synthesis of puff pastry-like g-C3N4/CdS heterostructure as S-junctions for efficient photocatalytic water splitting

Designing S-scheme heterojunctions with strong interfacial interaction is an effective way to facilitate the separation of photocarriers, as well as retaining the strong photoredox abilities. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has emerged as a promising material for heterostructure design, but the interfacial hybridization was restricted by the low surface area and limited active sites of bulk g-C3N4. In this paper, a molecular assembly strategy was employed to synthesize puff pastry-like g-C3N4/CdS nanoarchitectures with strongly coupled interfaces. The hydrogen bond-mediated reassembly of hydrolyzed g-C3N4 molecules was employed to intercalate ultrafine CdS nanoparticles into 2D g-C3N4 assemblies. The intimate contact between g-C3N4 supports and inlaid CdS contributed to the formation of built-in electric field, which was favorable for the S-scheme separation of photogenerated carriers. As a consequence, the puff pastry-like g-C3N4/CdS heterojunction exhibited a H-2 evolution rate of 3.37 mmol & BULL;g(-1)& BULL;h(-1). The strategy used here paves a new avenue toward the assembly synthesis of high-performance S-scheme photocatalysts via molecular tailoring.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized puff pastry-like g-C3N4/CdS nanoarchitectures using a molecular assembly strategy, which enhanced the separation of photocarriers and improved the catalytic efficiency by strengthening the interfacial interaction.