Facile One-Step Preparation and Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production of Composite MoS2/g-C3N4 Sensitized by Erythrosin B

Abstract

MoS2/g-C3N4 (g-C3N4 [Formula: see text] graphitic carbon nitride) composite is considered as a promising photocatalyst for hydrogen production, while the preparation method still needs to be improved. Herein for the first time, nanosized MoS3 and melamine were used as starting materials and a facile one-pot calcination method was successfully applied for the synthesis of MoS2/g-C3N4. The physical and photophysical properties of the as-prepared MoS2/g-C3N4 were characterized by XRD, IR, SEM, TEM and XPS techniques. Sensitized by Erythrosin B (EB), the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance of MoS2/g-C3N4 was investigated and the amount of MoS2 was optimized. An excellent H2 production activity of 1091.2[Formula: see text][Formula: see text] was achieved for 43% MoS2/g-C3N4, which is about 330 times that of pure g-C3N4 (3.3[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]. In addition, its performance was compared with those of three other MoS2/g-C3N4 samples prepared by conventional methods and a possible mechanism of H2 production was proposed based on the photoluminescence and photoelectrochemical results.