The bimetallic iron−nickel sulfide modified g-C3N4 nano-heterojunction and its photocatalytic hydrogen production enhancement

Abstract

A bimetallic iron−nickel sulfide(Fe-Ni-S) modified g-C3N4 nano-heterojunction is synthesized via a simple preparation technique using two-step hydrothermal method. The results of SEM(scanning electron microscopy), EDS(Energy Disperse Spectroscopy), elemental mapping, XRD(X-ray diffraction), TEM(transmission electron microscopy), XPS(X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and FT-IR(fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) imply that the Fe-Ni layered double hydroxide(Fe-Ni-LDH) were sulfuretted to Fe-Ni-S nanoparticles and deposited on the surface of the g-C3N4 nanosheets successfully. The photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of the as-prepared Fe-Ni-S/g-C3N4 nano-heterojunction remarkably exhibits an enhancement of 52 times than that of the unmodified g-C3N4. Furthermore, the mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen production enhancement has been studied, which could be ascribed to the partial-charge transfer activation of the Fe-Ni-S co-catalyst.