Na2Fe2Ti6O16 as a hybrid co-catalyst on g-C3N4 to enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light illumination

Abstract

A few Na2Fe2Ti6O16 (NFTO) nanosheets were loaded on graphitic carbon nitride with a salt melt method to form heterojunctions. NFTO as a co-catalyst can extend the light harvesting, increase conductivity and promote photogenerated electron-hole separation, as a result, improve the hydrogen generation of NFTO/g-C3N4 nanocomposite, which is 1.8 times than that of pure g-C3N4. The hydrogen production rate steadily reaches 389 μmol·g−1·h−1 with a little NFTO content of 2% in the NFTO/g-C3N4 composites under visible light illumination. These results demonstrate that NFTO nenosheets hold great promise as a co-catalyst for solar energy harvesting of g-C3N4-based composite.