A novel three-dimensional pyridine-pillared graphene assembly for enhanced electron transfer and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

By means of electrostatic interaction and coordination interaction, novel three-dimensional 1,2-di(pyridine-4-ly)ethyne (DPyE)/graphene oxide (GO) assemblies were fabricated with rare earth ions (Ln) as interfacial linkers. The structure, morphology and composition of the assemblies were characterized in detail. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production over the GO-Ln-DPyE assemblies was investigated. It was found that the photoactivity over GO-Ln-DPyE was distinctly higher than that over GO-DPyE without a bridging agent (rare earth ions), which indicated the important role of Ln in GO-DPyE. As evidenced by the photocurrent spectrum and electrochemical impedance spectrum, with rare earth ions as the interfacial linkers between GO and DPyE, it was important to define the mode of electron transfer and facilitate the separation of electron and holes, which was advantageous for improving the photocatalytic activity of GO-DPyE. The present study provides a new strategy for the construction of a GO-based heterostructure in order to improve its photocatalytic activity.