Enhanced visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution via cubic CeO2 hybridized g-C3N4 composite

Abstract In this work, CeO 2 nanocubes hybridized g-C 3 N 4 composites had been facilely synthesized to investigate the interfacial effects on photocatalytic water splitting. The c-CeO 2 /g-C 3 N 4 composites exhibited the superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation. The optimal c-CeO 2 loading content was 5 wt%, with the H 2 evolution of 4300 μmol g −1 for 5 h illumination, higher than that of pristine CeO 2 , g-C 3 N 4 and irregular CeO 2 nanoparticles/g-C 3 N 4 . Moreover, UV–vis DRS, PL spectra and photoelectrochemical measurements demonstrated that 5 wt% c-CeO 2 /g-C 3 N 4 composite possessed more visible light adsorption and faster charge transfer, which was attributed to the stronger interfacial effects through the presence of the hydrogen bond and p-π hybrid between c-CeO 2 {100} and g-C 3 N 4 , revealed by the FT-IR and XPS results. The work suggested that engineering the structures of the CeO 2 and g-C 3 N 4 interface could be an effective strategy to obtain excellent photocatalysts.