Efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution over Cu and Cu3P co-modified TiO2 nanosheet

Abstract Schottky junction and p-n heterojunction are widely employed to enhance the charge transfer during the photocatalysis process. Herein, Cu and Cu3P co-modified TiO2 nanosheet hybrid (Cu–Cu3P/TiO2) was fabricated using an in situ hydrothermal method. The ternary composite achieved the superior H2 evolution rate of 6915.7 μmol g−1 h−1 under simulated sunlight, which was higher than that of Cu/TiO2 (4643.4 μmol g−1 h−1) and Cu3P/TiO2 (6315.8 μmol g−1 h−1) and pure TiO2 (415.7 μmol g−1 h−1). The enhanced activity can be attributed to the collaboration effect of Schottky junction and p-n heterojunction among Cu/TiO2 and Cu3P/TiO2, which can harvest the visible light, reduce the recombination of charge carriers and lower the overpotential of H2 evolution, leading to a fast H2 evolution kinetics. This work develops a feasible method for the exploration of H2 evolution photocatalyst with outstanding charge separation properties.