Enhanced performance of a NaCo[BiCoWO(HO)]/porous graphitic carbon nitride heterojunction based photocatalyst realized by the addition of copper sulfide nanoparticles

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry 2024-06, Vol.53 (23), p.9844-9851
• Main Authors: Jiang, Qiushuang, Liu, Zhuopeng, Wang, Xinming, Ma, Huiyuan, Pang, Haijun
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d4dt01010h

Photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) evolution can effectively solve the global energy problem, in which the key factor is the synthesis of efficient photocatalytic materials. In this study, we successfully synthesized a novel photocatalyst, BiWCo/CuS/PGCN, by functionalizing porous graphitic carbon nitride (PGCN) with sandwich-type polyoxometalate Na 3.5 Co 4 [Bi 2 Co 2 W 19.75 O 70 (H 2 O) 6 ]·39.5H 2 O (BiWCo) and introducing copper sulfide (CuS) nanoparticles as a cocatalyst. This approach was aimed at enhancing the built inner electric field between interfaces, resulting in a significant improvement in photocatalytic H 2 evolution performance. This research adopts a step-by-step method to synthesize BiWCo/CuS/PGCN composites with p-n heterojunctions, which has high visible light absorption and a synergistic effect of multiple elements. PGCN with a high specific surface area contributes to the uniform distribution of active sites. In addition, the nano-CuS cocatalyst provides abundant active sites and more electron transfer pathways for photocatalysis. Therefore, the H 2 production efficiency of BiWCo/CuS/PGCN is 6.3 times that of PGCN, 4.5 times that of BiWCo and 2.5 times that of BiWCo/PGCN under visible light. The H 2 production rate of BiWCo/CuS/PGCN reaches 3477.58 μmol g −1 h −1 . At the same time, the ternary photocatalyst shows high stability after 30 hours and 5 cycles. This work demonstrates that BiWCo/CuS/PGCN has good application prospects in H 2 evolution, and provides a new strategy for the design of efficient ternary photocatalytic materials. Photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) evolution can effectively solve the global energy problem, in which the key factor is the synthesis of efficient photocatalytic materials.