Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 72-81.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63430-3

• Photocatalytic H2 production • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synergistic effect of Co(II)-hole and Pt-electron cocatalysts for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of P-doped g-C3N4

Kouhua Suna,c, Jun Shenb, Qinqin Liuc,d, Hua Tangc, Mingyi Zhangd, Syed Zulfiqarc, Chunsheng Leia   

  1. a School of Environment & Safety Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, Jiangsu, China;
    b School of Pharmacy, Suzhou Vocational Health College, Suzhou 215009, Jiangsu, China;
    c School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, China;
    d Key Laboratory for Photonic and Electronic Bandgap Materials, Ministry of Education, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, Heilongjiang, China
  • Received:2019-05-30 Revised:2019-06-22 Online:2020-01-18 Published:2019-10-22
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51672113) and QingLan Project Foundation of Jiangsu Province (201611).

Abstract: g-C3N4 is a metal-free semiconductor and a potential candidate for photocatalytic H2 production, however, the drawbacks, rapid recombination rate and limited migration efficiency of photogenerated carriers, restrict its photocatalytic activity. Herein, Co(Ⅱ) as a hole cocatalyst modified P-doped g-C3N4 were successfully prepared to ameliorate the separation efficiency of photoinduced carriers and enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen production. The photocatalytic results demonstrated that the P-doped g-C3N4 (PCN) exhibited higher photocatalytic activity compared with pure g-C3N4, while Co(Ⅱ)/PCN photocatalyst exhibited further enhancement of photocatalytic performance. The proposed possible mechanism based on various characterizations is that P-doping can modulate the electronic structure of g-C3N4 to boost the separation of photogenerated-e- and h+; while the synergistic effect of both Co(Ⅱ) (as hole cocatalyst) and Pt (as electron cocatalyst) can not only lead to the directional shunting of photogenerated e+-h- pairs, but further accelerate the photogenerated electrons transfer to Pt in order to join the photocatalytic reduction process for hydrogen evolution. As a result, the transportation and separation of photoinduced carriers were accelerated to greatest extent in the Pt/Co(Ⅱ)/PCN photocatalyst.

Key words: Photocatalytic H2 production, Hole cocatalyst, Electron cocatalyst, P-doped g-C3N4