Scientific Reports (Nov 2018)

Bio-inspired Z-scheme g-C3N4/Ag2CrO4 for efficient visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen generation

  • Yuping Che,
  • Bingxin Lu,
  • Qi Qi,
  • Huaiqiu Chang,
  • Jin Zhai,
  • Kefeng Wang,
  • Zhaoyue Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34287-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract Due to low charge separation efficiency and poor stability, it is usually difficult for single-component photocatalysts such as graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and silver chromate (Ag2CrO4) to fulfill photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiently. Z-scheme charge transport mechanism that mimics the photosynthesis in nature is an effective way to solve the above problems. Inspired by photosynthesis, we report Ag2CrO4 nanoparticles-decorated g-C3N4 nanosheet as an efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with methanol as sacrificial agent. The formation of Z-scheme g-C3N4/Ag2CrO4 nanosheets photocatalysts could inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, promote the generation of hydrogen by photosplitting of water. The experiment results indicate that g-C3N4/Ag2CrO4 nanocomposites present enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability in the H2 evolution of water splitting. And the nanocomposites g-C3N4/Ag2CrO4(23.1%) show the 14 times HER efficiency compared to that of bare g-C3N4.

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