Layered double hydroxides decorated graphic carbon nitride film as efficient photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract In the present work, we investigate the graphic carbon nitride (g-CN) film as photoanode to catalyze the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation and study the influence of NiCo layered double hydroxides (NiCo-LDH) layer on the performance. The g-CN film with good quality and intimate contact with substrate was in-situ prepared via solvothermal process and subsequent calcination. NiCo-LDH is further decorated on the g-CN film through cathodic electrochemical deposition to work as co-catalyst. The g-CN/NiCo-LDH composite with optimized NiCo-LDH loading amount exhibits a photocurrent of 11.8 μA cm −2 at 0.6 V vs. SCE, which is 2.8 times of bare g-CN. Characterizations and performance tests demonstrate that NiCo-LDH promoted reaction kinetics and charge separation. The results provide an effective strategy to improve the photoelectrochemical water oxidation performance of g-CN through NiCo-LDH co-catalyst. This work to investigate the photoelectrochemical water oxidation is of great significance toward explore the overall water splitting on the g-CN film.