Cu, B co-modification boosted the photogenerated carrier separation efficiency in C3N4 for enhanced hydrogen evolution

Abstract

In this work, g-C3N4 (U1W1–CNS) were prepared by calcination and Cu, B co-modified U1W1–CNS (Cu, B–CNS) was successfully fabricated by cryo-ultrasonic loading. B doping formed the unfavourable sub-centers and the Cu loading forms the electron-rich centre, which enhances the built-in electric field on the surface of U1W1–CNS. Hence, the 0.03Cu, 0.05B–CNS record a superior photocatalytic performance the hydrogen production rate reached to 1067 umolg−1h−1, which was 152, 10 and 1.67 times higher than that of U1W1–CNS (7 μmolg−1h−1), BCN (104 μmolg−1h−1) and 0.03Cu–CNS (638 μmolg−1h−1), respectively. This research provides new ideas for the design of U1W1–CNS photocatalyst with high performance photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.