Constructing electron transport channel of SnO2/BaSO4 on g-C3N4 for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 production

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is confronted with the issue of poor utilization of photogenerated charge carriers, thereby leading to limited performance of photocatalytic hydrogen (H₂) production, which restricts its potential application. Herein, the electron transport material SnO₂/BaSO₄ was synthesized to integrate with g-C₃N₄ for addressing the above problem. Various characterizations were conducted to investigate the g-C₃N₄-SnO₂/BaSO₄ photocatalyst, and it demonstrated that photogenerated electrons from g-C₃N₄ expeditiously migrate to SnO₂/BaSO₄ nanoparticles, which markedly hindered photogenerated carriers’ recombination. Subsequently, the g-C₃N₄-SnO₂/BaSO₄ photocatalyst demonstrated promoted photocatalytic H₂ production at a rate of 14.2 μmol h⁻¹ under visible-light illumination, which was 2.5 times higher than that of pristine g-C₃N₄.