Noble-metal-free heterostructure for efficient hydrogen evolution in visible region: Molybdenum nitride/ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride

By Shuaiqi Gong, Zhengjun Jiang, Penghui Shi, Jinchen Fan, Qunjie Xu, Yulin Min. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2018

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Abstract Molybdenum nitride (MoN) has been attracting increasing attention in recent years for the application of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. However, the application of MoN for photocatalytic H2 evolution has seldom been reported. Here, we report that the sample with the heterostructure between Mo2N and 2D ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheet (CN) is fabricated via boil bathing method for the use of the visible light photocatalytic H2 evolution. Without using any noble metal cocatalyst, the H2 evolution rate of Mo2N/CN under visible light irradiation reaches 0.89 μmolg−1 h−1, which is ≈148 times higher than that of pure CN. The photoelectron-chemical experiments suggest that the carriers in Mo2N/CN can separate and transfer easier than those in CN due to the effect of Mo2N as the modification of CN. The combination of the Mo2N and CN represents not only a simple but also an economical and powerful method for the highly effective photocatalytic H2 generation in the visible region.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6d06943e6a6d6fc4967384fbb5c8cc8b79119c1