Fabrication of B doped g-C3N4/TiO2 heterojunction for efficient photoelectrochemical water oxidation.

With the development of clean and renewable energy, hydrogen produced via photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted considerable attention. However, to develop the photoanodes with stable and excellent PEC ability is still a big challenge. In our work, TiO 2 nanorods decorated with boron doped g-C 3 N 4 (BCN/TiO 2 ) is fabricated via thermal polymerization method to improve the PEC performance. The BCN/TiO 2 displays 4-fold increase of the photocurrent density (1.01 mA cm −2 ) at 1.23 V vs. RHE under irradiation (100 mW cm −2 , AM 1.5 G). And the onset potential of BCN/TiO 2 exhibits a negative shift with 100 mV. Attributed to the broad light absorption of BCN and hetero-junction forming between BCN and TiO 2 , the IPCE value is increased to 87.8% in 380 nm, and the charge separation and transfer efficiency are both increased. Doping metal-free inorganic material with heteroatoms is a simple and efficient strategy to increase the light absorption within visible light and charge transfer efficiency in PEC and photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]