A novel S-scheme 1D/2D Bi2S3/g-C3N4 heterojunctions with enhanced H2 evolution activity

Abstract The development of eco-friendly photocatalyst system made of earth-abundant elements is of great importance to meet the needs of both environmental and energy application. In this work, we have successfully synthesized the binary S-scheme Bi2S3/g-C3N4 heterostructure by a simple one-step solvothermal method, in which 1D Bi2S3 nanorods uniformly growing on the 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets. Under visible light illumination, the optimized Bi2S3/g-C3N4 hybrid exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution. In detail, the H2 evolution rate of 0.6% Bi2S3/g-C3N4 reach up to unexceptionable 3394.1 μmol g-1 h-1, which are approximately 2.6 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4. In cycling experiment, the photocatalytic activity of 0.6% Bi2S3/g-C3N4 almost no change that revealing its excellent stability and recyclability. Based on the radical-trapping experiment and band structure results, we can draw a conclusion that the transfer and separation of photoinduced charge carriers obeyed by the direct S-scheme mechanism, which can tremendously facilitate the separation and utilization of charge carries and thus leading to distinctly enhanced photocatalytic performance. More importantly, this work sheds light on new routes to designing eco-friendly photocatalyst system based on the earth-abundant elements for both environmental and energy application.