Boosting the Photocatalytic Ability of g-C3N4 for Hydrogen Production by Ti3C2 MXene Quantum Dots

Yujie Li; Lei Ding; Yichen Guo; Zhangqian Liang; Hongzhi Cui; Jian Tian

doi:10.1021/acsami.9b14985

Boosting the Photocatalytic Ability of g-C₃N₄ for Hydrogen Production by Ti₃C₂ MXene Quantum Dots

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Nov 6;11(44):41440-41447. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b14985. Epub 2019 Oct 24.

Authors

Yujie Li¹, Lei Ding¹, Yichen Guo¹, Zhangqian Liang¹, Hongzhi Cui¹, Jian Tian¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering , Shandong University of Science and Technology , Qingdao 266590 , China.

PMID: 31615201
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b14985

Abstract

The big challenging issues in photocatalytic H₂ evolution are efficient separation of the photoinduced carriers, the stability of the catalyst, enhancing quantum efficiency, and requiring photoinduced electrons to enrich on photocatalysts' surface. Herein, Ti₃C₂ MXene quantum dots (QDs) possess the activity of Pt as a co-catalyst in promoting the photocatalytic H₂ evolution to form heterostructures with g-C₃N₄ nanosheets (NSs) (denoted g-C₃N₄@Ti₃C₂ QDs). The photocatalytic H₂ evolution rate of g-C₃N₄@Ti₃C₂ QD composites with an optimized Ti₃C₂ QD loading amounts (100 mL) is nearly 26, 3 and 10 times higher than pristine g-C₃N₄ NSs, Pt/g-C₃N₄, and Ti₃C₂ MXene sheet/g-C₃N₄, respectively. The Ti₃C₂ QDs increase the specific surface area of g-C₃N₄ and boost the density of the active site. Besides, metallic Ti₃C₂ QDs possess excellent electronic conductivity, causing the improvement of carrier transfer efficiency.

Keywords: Ti3C2 MXene quantum dots; co-catalysts; g-C3N4 nanosheets; photocatalytic H2 production.