WO3/g-C3N4 composites: one-pot preparation and enhanced photocatalytic H2 production under visible-light irradiation

A series of WO3/g-C3N4 composites with different WO3 contents were prepared via a facile one-pot pyrolysis method, and showed notably enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic H-2-evolution activities, with the highest rate of 400 mu mol h(-1) g(cat)(-1) that was 15.0 times of that for pristine g-C3N4. Contents and sizes of WO3 crystallites in the composites were easily adjusted by changing the molar ratios of (NH4)(2)WS4 to C3H6N6 in the feed reagents, thereby successfully optimizing the Z-scheme system constructed by WO3 and g-C3N4 and thus effectively reducing the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers in g-C3N4. Moreover, pore volumes and surface areas of the composites were gradually enlarged by introducing WO3 into g-C3N4 via the one-pot preparation strategy, therefore promoting the redox reactions to evolve H-2. This work presented an effective route to simultaneously optimize the phase compositions and textural structures of photocatalysts for enhanced H-2 evolution.