Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheet Wrapped Mesoporous Titanium Dioxide for Enhanced Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting

Lin Jing, Wee-Jun Ong, Rui Zhang, Emma Pickwell-MacPherson, Jimmy C. Yu

Index: 10.1016/j.cattod.2018.04.007

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Abstract

We report a new strategy to fabricate a core-shell TiO2@g-C3N4 composite for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The heterojunction structure is prepared by chemically wrapping exfoliated thin layer g-C3N4 nanosheets on the surface of anatase TiO2 particles. The TiO2@g-C3N4 sample demonstrates high visible-light photoactivity towards water splitting, resulting in an increase in photocurrent density by a factor of 2.5 times compared to the bare TiO2. This is ascribed to the inhibition of electron-hole pair recombination due to the synergistic effect between TiO2 and g-C3N4, which enhances the charge transfer and separation. The prolonged lifetime of the charges is confirmed by using the transient absorption spectroscopic measurements.