Electronic pump boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over graphitic carbon nitride

Abstract

The high rate of charge carrier recombination greatly limits the photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). In this contribution, body center cubic indium tin oxide nanoparticles (ITO NPs) as electronic pumps are directly formed on g-C3N4 via a facile one-pot method. The hydrogen production rate of Pt/ITO/g-C3N4 is 3.3 times as high as that of Pt/g-C3N4 under visible light (λ > 420 nm) irradiation. The excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance should be attributed to the close contact of well-dispersed ITO NPs with g-C3N4 in the prepared ITO/g-C3N4 and in situ formation of Pt onto ITO NPs, leading to accelerated photogenerated electron transfer from g-C3N4 to Pt through ITO pumps for hydrogen generation. In the present work, we successfully demonstrate a high-performance Pt/ITO/g-C3N4 system for visible light hydrogen evolution, and the essential role of ITO NPs as the electronic pumps for efficient photogenerated electron transfer could be informative for designing efficient systems for solar hydrogen generation.