Interfacial engineering to construct 2D-2D NiCo-LDH/g-C3N4 heterojunctions for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production performance

Abstract

Photocatalytic water splitting provides a green method to solve the energy shortage issue. Combine two-dimensional carbon nitride nano sheets with other two-dimensional semiconductors can effectively increase the construct area and improve the utilization of photogenerated charges. Herein, 2D-2D NiCo-LDH/g-C3N4 composites were successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The lamellar NiCo-LDH was grown in situ on g-C3N4, in which way the hydrogen production rate was enhanced by about 21 times, reaching 755 μmol·g−1·h−1. According to the results of density functional theory （DFT） calculations, an S-type heterojunction is successfully constructed, which achieves the spatial separation of semiconductor photogenerated electron-hole with guaranteed strong redox capability. This work emphasizes that effective transport channels for transfer and separation of photogenerated charges can be created through efficient interfacial regulation strategy.