Controllable Interface -Induced Co-Assembly toward Highly Ordered Mesoporous Pt@TiO2/g-C3N4 Heterojunctions with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

Titania-based materials have aroused great attention in energy conversion and photocatalytic degradation, but they suffer from the drawbacks of fast electron-hole recombination and narrow light-adsorption range. Here, a series of heterojunction mesoporous TiO2/g-C3N4 (mTiO(2)/g-C3N4) composites with improved light-adsorption capacity and efficient light-capturing property are designed through a novel solid-liquid interface induced co-assembly strategy and controlling the interface property of g-C3N4. Through introducing Pt precursor during the synthesis, ultrasmall Pt nanoparticles are in situ generated in the mTiO(2)/g-C3N4 composites, forming mesoporous Pt@TiO2/g-C3N4 (mPt@TiO(2)g-C3N4-4.0) with abundant surface active sites, and huge heterojunction interfaces. The obtained mPt@TiO2/g-C3N4-4.0 photocatalysts have narrow band gap (approximate to 2.96 eV) and superior performance in promoting separation of photogenerated charge carriers. They show ultrahigh photocurrent density (approximate to 8.3 mu A cm(-2)) that is five times higher than that of mTiO(2)/g-C3N4-4.0 (approximate to 1.6 mu A cm-2) due to the effective charge separation between the semiconductors and Pt nanoparticles, as well as the synergistic effect at heterojunction interfaces. In addition, mPt@TiO2/g-C3N4 photocatalysts show excellent performance in photodegradation of rhodamine B with fast decomposition rate within 8 min. These results foresee the wide-range applications of the composite photocatalysts potential candidates for solar-to-fuel conversion and environmental remediation.