Nanoscale Multidimensional Pd/TiO2/g-C3N4 Catalyst for Efficient Solar-Driven Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Solar-to-fuel conversion is an innovative concept for green energy, attracting many researchers to explore them. Solar-driven photocatalysts have become an essential solution to provide valuable chemicals like hydrogen, hydrocarbon, and ammonia. For sustainable stability under solar irradiation, titanium dioxide is regarded as an acceptable candidate, further showing excellent photocatalytic activity. Incorporating the photo-sensitizers, including noble metal nanoparticles and polymeric carbon-based material, can improve its photoresponse and facilitate the electron transfer and collection. In this study, we synthesized the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheet incorporated with high crystalline TiO2 nanofibers (NF) as 1D/2D heterostructure catalyst for photocatalytic water splitting. The microstructure, optical absorption, crystal structure, charge carrier dynamics, and specific surface area were characterized systematically. The low bandgap of 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets (NS) as a sensitizer improves the specific surface area and photo-response in the visible region as the incorporated amount increases. Because of the band structure difference between TiO2 and g-C3N4, constructing the heterojunction formation, the superior separation of electron-hole is observed. The detection of reactive oxygen species and photo-assisted Kelvin probe microscopy are conducted to investigates the possible charge migration. The highest photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of Pd/TiO2/g-C3N4 achieves 11.62 mmol center dot h(-1)center dot g(-1) under xenon lamp irradiation.

Automated summary

The study explores the synthesis of a 1D/2D heterostructure catalyst by incorporating graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets with high crystalline titanium dioxide nanofibers for photocatalytic water splitting. Utilizing the low bandgap of the 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets as a sensitizer improves the specific surface area and photoresponse in the visible region. The heterojunction formation between TiO2 and g-C3N4 enables superior separation of electron-hole pairs, leading to enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production rates.