Enhanced electron transfer and photocatalytic hydrogen production over the carbon nitride/porphyrin nanohybrid finely bridged by special copper

This work proposes a novel carbon nitride-based hybrid (g-C3N4/Cu/THPP) with small-sized Cu as the bridging linker for improving the photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)/tetrakis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin (THPP). It was found that the special Cu linker had a great influence on the microstructure and photocatalytic H-2 production of the C3N4/THPP nanohybrid. The photocatalytic activity was enhanced by about 17.3 times compared to that of pristine g-C3N4 and about 11.6 times higher than that of g-C3N4/THPP. Especially, it was enhanced by about 3.1 times than that of g-C3N4/CuTHPP (a comparative composite without the Cu bridge). Furthermore, the photocatalysis mechanism was investigated in detail. The results demonstrated that interfacial modification with the special Cu linker was key in improving the absorption, electron/hole separation and photocatalytic performance of the nanohybrid. This work provides a facile strategy for preparing highly efficient photocatalysts through interfacial modifications with special metals.