Competitive Self-Assembly of PANI Confined MoS2 Boosting the Photocatalytic Activity of the Graphitic Carbon Nitride

The phosphomolybdic acid hydrate (PMo12)-based g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 with the conductive polyaniline mediator and the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst were designed and in situ fabricated onto earth-abundant and environment-friendly g-C3N4 for the first time. The PMo12 not only polymerized the aniline (ANI) monomer but also oxidized the thiourea and formed the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst at a low temperature, and hence the PANI embraced the as-formed MoS2 and refined its particle size for more marginal active sites. Consequently, the optimal g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 exhibited a very high photocatalytic H-2 evolution activity of 29.70 mu mol/h under visible light irradiation, which was 11.4 and 270.0 times larger than that of g-C3N4-MoS2 and the pristine g-C3N4, respectively, indicating the extremely important role of the synergistic effect of the high conductivity of PANI and PANI-refined nanosized MoS2 and providing a facile method for the design of novel high-performance catalyst for the solar conversion.