Facile preparation of metallic 1T phase molybdenum selenide as cocatalyst coupled with graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

Zhangqian Liang; Xiangfa Meng; Yanjun Xue; Xiaoyue Chen; Yanli Zhou; Xiaoli Zhang; Hongzhi Cui; Jian Tian

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.066

Facile preparation of metallic 1T phase molybdenum selenide as cocatalyst coupled with graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H₂ production

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Sep 15:598:172-180. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.066. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Authors

Zhangqian Liang¹, Xiangfa Meng¹, Yanjun Xue¹, Xiaoyue Chen¹, Yanli Zhou², Xiaoli Zhang³, Hongzhi Cui⁴, Jian Tian⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China.
² School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China. Electronic address: zhouyanli@ytu.edu.cn.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China. Electronic address: cuihongzhi1965@163.com.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China. Electronic address: jiantian@sdust.edu.cn.

PMID: 33901844
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.066

Abstract

Low-cost, highly active and efficient alternative co-catalysts that can replace precious metals such as Au and Pt are urgently needed for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we show that 1T phase MoSe₂ can act as the co-catalyst in the 1T-MoSe₂/g-C₃N₄ composites and we synthesize this composite by a one-step hydrothermal method to promote photocatalytic H₂ generation. Our prepared 1T-MoSe₂/g-C₃N₄ composite exhibits highly enhanced photocatalytic H₂ production compared to that of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets (NSs) only. The 7 wt%-1T-MoSe₂/g-C₃N₄ composite presents a considerably improved photocatalytic HER rate (6.95 mmol·h^-1·g^-1), approximately 90 times greater than that of pure g-C₃N₄ (0.07 mmol·h^-1 g^-1). Moreover, under illumination at λ = 370 nm, the apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of the 7 wt%-1T-MoSe₂/g-C₃N₄ composite reaches 14.0%. Furthermore, the 1T-MoSe₂/g-C₃N₄ composites still maintain outstanding photocatalytic HER stability.

Keywords: Metallic 1T phase; MoSe(2); Photocatalytic H(2) evolution; g-C(3)N(4) nanosheet.