Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production from Pure Water Using a IEF-11/g-CN S-Scheme Heterojunction.

Construction of S-scheme heterojunction offers a promising way to enhance the photocatalytic performance of photocatalysts for converting solar energy into chemical energy. However, the photocatalytic H production in pure water without sacrificial agents is still a challenge. Herein, the IEF-11 with the best photocatalytic H production performance in MOFs and suitable band structure was selected and firstly constructed with g-CN to obtain a S-scheme heterojunction for photocatalytic H production from pure water. As a result, the novel IEF-11/g-CN heterojunction photocatalysts exhibited significantly improved photocatalytic H production performance in pure water without any sacrificial agent, with a rate of 576 μmol/g/h, which is about 8 times than that of g-CN and 23 times of IEF-11. The novel IEF-11/g-CN photocatalysts also had a photocatalytic H production rate of up to 92 μmol/g/h under visible light and a good photocatalytic stability. The improved performance can be attributed to the efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers, faster charge transfer efficiency and longer photogenerated carrier lifetimes, which comes from the forming of S-scheme heterojunction in the IEF-11/g-CN photocatalyst. This work is a promising guideline for obtaining MOF-based or g-CN-based photocatalysts with great photocatalytic water splitting performance.