2D PtS nanorectangles/g-C₃N₄ nanosheets with a metal sulfide-support interaction effect for high-efficiency photocatalytic H₂ evolution

• Main Authors: Lin, Bo, Zhou, Yao, Xu, Baorong, Zhu, Chao, Tang, Wu, Niu, Yingchun, Di, Jun, Song, Pin, Zhou, Jiadong, Luo, Xiao, Kang, Lixing, Duan, Ruihuan, Fu, Qundong, Liu, Haishi, Jin, Ronghua, Xue, Chao, Chen, Qiang, Yang, Guidong, Varga, Kalman, Xu, Quan, Li, Yonghui, Liu, Zheng, Liu, Fucai
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Charge-Transfer; Carbon Nitride
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160006
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cocatalyst design is a key approach to acquire high solar-energy conversion efficiency for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Here a new in situ vapor-phase (ISVP) growth method is developed to construct the cocatalyst of 2D PtS nanorectangles (a length of ∼7 nm, a width of ∼5 nm) on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets. The 2D PtS nanorectangles/g-C3N4 nanosheets (PtS/CN) show an unusual metal sulfide-support interaction (MSSI), which is evidenced by atomic resolution HAADF-STEM, synchrotron-based GIXRD, XPS and DFT calculations. The effect of MSSI contributes to the optimization of geometrical structure and energy-band structure, acceleration of charge transfer, and reduction of hydrogen adsorption free energy of PtS/CN, thus yielding excellent stability and an ultrahigh photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 1072.6 μmol h-1 (an apparent quantum efficiency of 45.7% at 420 nm), up to 13.3 and 1532.3 times by contrast with that of Pt nanoparticles/g-C3N4 nanosheets and g-C3N4 nanosheets, respectively. This work will provide a new platform for designing high-efficiency photocatalysts for sunlight-driven hydrogen generation.