Facile construction Z-scheme anatase/rutile TiO2/g-C3N4 hybrid for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution under visible-light irradiation.

Z-scheme anatase/rutile TiO 2 /g-C 3 N 4 hybrids (denoted as LTARCN-x, x represents calcination temperature) were designed and synthesized by growing TiO 2 nanorods on the surface of g-C 3 N 4 utilizing impregnation-calcination method. Furthermore, through the etched effect of hydrochloric acid and calcination treatment, the as-prepared LTARCN-x possessed abundant pore structure and larger surface area, and the surface area of LTARCN-425 was 8.5 times than that of bulk g-C 3 N 4. Meanwhile, the g-C 3 N 4 would play a role of carrier to prevent from the aggregation of TiO 2 nanorods. In addition, under visible light irradiation, the Z-scheme heterostructure would be constructed between the rutile TiO 2 nanorod and g-C 3 N 4 nanosheet, respectively. The optimized photocatalyst LTARCN-425 exhibited a preferable activity, the photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of LTARCN-425 was about 1031 μmol g−1 h−1, and it was about 6.3 and 13.6 times than that of g-C 3 N 4 and TiO 2 , respectively. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism of the hydrogen production was studied intensively via designing fluorescent probe, Pt and PbO 2 deposition experiment, and the characterizations of EPR, TEM, HRTEM and XPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]