Tio2 nanowires with doped g-c3n4 nanoparticles for enhanced h2 production and photodegradation of pollutants

Abstract

With the rapid consumption of fossil fuels, along with the ever-increasing environmental pollution, it is becoming a top priority to explore efficient photocatalysts for the production of re-newable hydrogen and degradation of pollutants. Here, we fabricated a composite of g-C3N4/TiO2 via an in situ growth method under the conditions of high-temperature calcination. In this method, TiO2 nanowires with a large specific surface area could provide enough space for loading more g-C3N4 nanoparticles to obtain C3N4/TiO2 composites. Of note, the g-C3N4/TiO2 composite could effec-tively photocatalyze both the degradation of several pollutants and production of hydrogen, both of which are essential for environmental governance. Combining multiple characterizations and experiments, we found that the heterojunction constructed by the TiO2 and g-C3N4 could increase the photocatalytic ability of materials by prompting the separation of photogenerated carriers. Fur-thermore, the photocatalytic mechanism of the g-C3N4/TiO2 composite was also clarified in detail.