Orienting the charge transfer path of type-II heterojunction for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

One of the bottlenecks for photocatalytic H2 generation is the severe recombination of photoexcited charge carriers in photocatalysts. As an effective approach, constructing heterojunction with type II band alignment has been applied for efficient charge separation in photocatalysts during the photocatalytic process. By compositing g-C3N4 and P25 as a model photocatalyst, the limited charge separation efficiency and random charge transfer paths are discovered in this conventional type II heterostructured g-C3N4/P25. In order to overcome these shortcomings in g-C3N4/P25, we designed a type II heterostructured photocatalyst with oriented transfer path for photo-excited charges during the real photocatalysis process via a one-pot synthesis strategy, in which the separation efficiency was much improved. The as-prepared g-C3N4/P25(N)-Pd photocatalyst exhibits a tremendously enhanced photocatalytic activity, which is 8.7 and 24.5 times that of g-C3N4 under visible light and full wave light irradiation, respectively.