Photocatalytic hydrogen production over carbon nitride loaded with WS2 as cocatalyst under visible light

Mesoporous graphitic$ carbon nitride (mpg-CN) was loaded with WS2 via an impregnation sulfidation approach. The resultant surface heterojunctions between WS2 and mpg-CN were evidently confirmed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Photocatalytic H-2 production on WS2/mpg-CN under visible light (lambda > 420 nm) shows that WS2 plays an important role in catalyzing H-2 production. The rate of hydrogen evolution reaches an optimum when the loading amount of WS2 is about 0.3 at.%. Combined with the physicochemical and electrocatalytic properties of WS2/mpg-CN, it can be concluded that the enhanced photocatalytic H-2 production activity on WS2/mpg-CN is mainly attributed to the thin layered junctions formed between WS2 and mpg-CN and the great performance of WS2 as a cocatalyst in H-2 evolution reaction. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.