In Situ Synthesis of Few-Layered g-C₃ N₄ with Vertically Aligned MoS₂ Loading for Boosting Solar-to-Hydrogen...

In artificial photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, effective incident photon absorption and a high-charge recombination rate are crucial factors influencing the overall efficiency. Herein, a traditional solid-state synthesis is used to obtain, for the first time, novel samples of few-layered g-C₃ N₄ with vertically aligned MoS₂ loading (MoS₂ /C₃ N₄ ). Thiourea and layered MoO₃ are chosen as precursors, as they react under nitrogen atmosphere to in situ produce the products. According to the quasi-Fourier transform infrared reflectance and X-ray diffraction measurements, the detailed reaction process is determined to proceed through the confirmed formation pathway. The two precursor units MoS₂ and C₃ N₄ are linked by MoN bonds, which act as electronic receivers/conductors and hydrogen-generation sites. Density functional theory is also carried out, which determines that the interface sites act as electron-accumulation regions. According to the photoelectrochemical results, MoS₂ /C₃ N₄ can achieve a current of 0.05 mA cm^-2 , which is almost ten times higher than that of bare g-C₃ N₄ or the MoS₂ /C₃ N₄ -R reference samples. The findings in the present work pave the way to not only synthesize a series of designated samples but also thoroughly understand the solid-state reaction.