Fabrication of the hetero structured CsTaWO6/Au/g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalyst with enhanced performance of photocatalytic hydrogen production from water

In this work, a novel CsTaWO6/Au/g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalyst is successfully fabricated. The photocatalytic performance of the heterostructured CsTaWO6/Au/g-C3N composite was investigated. Au nanoparticles were photo-deposited as the interlayer between g-C3N4 and the surface of CsTaWO6, which can facilitate the photoinduced electrons migration as an electron-conduction bridge as well as increase visible-light absorption via the surface plasmon resonance. This heterostructured interface bridging by Au particles may significantly retard the recombination of electron-holes, which is beneficial to promote the photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation. It is found the CsTaWO6/Au/g-C3N sample showed excellent photocatalytic activity of water splitting, even higher than the sum of g-C3N4 and Au/C5TaWO6 samples, or the sum of CsTaWO6 and Au/g-C3N4 samples. It indicates that the heterostructured combination of g-(CN4)-N-3 and CsTaWO6 bridging by Au particles provided the synergistic photocatalytic activity driving by solar light through an efficient electron transfer process. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.