Fabrication of an ultrathin 2D/2D C3N4/MoS2 heterojunction photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic performance

An ultrathin 2D/2D C3N4/MoS2 (U-CN/MoS2) heterojunction photocatalyst was prepared by a simple mechanical grinding technique to investigate the photocatalytic degradation RhB and hydrogen production performance. Physical characterization shows that the ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets (U-MoS2) can form heterojunction with the ultrathin C3N4 (U-CN), and their intrinsic crystal structure remains stable. Further photocatalytic performance test demonstrated that the U-CN/MoS2 heterojunction photocatalyst significantly enhanced the photocatalytic activity of U-CN. The U-CN/MoS2 photocatalyst with 3% mass fraction of MoS2 station (U-CN/MoS2-3) has the optimal photocatalytic performance. Due to MoS2 has a suitable band structure and can replace noble metal as a co-catalyst, the U-CN/MoS2-3 could achieve the hydrogen production efficiency of 385.04 μmol∙h−1∙g−1, which makes MoS2 show potential in photocatalytic hydrogen production. The enhanced photocatalytic performance was attributed to the significantly enhanced concentration of photogenerated carriers, the effective separation of photogenerated carriers, and suppressed recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes in the photocatalytic reaction.