In-situ fabrication of Bi2S3/g-C3N4 heterojunctions with boosted H2 production rate under visible light irradiation

• Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunctions were obtained via a one-step solid phase approach. • Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunctions boost the textural properties. • Heterojunctions facilitate the separation efficiency of photo-induced charges. • The photocatalytic H 2 evolution performance has been boosted. The limited response region of visible light and the fast recombination of photo-induced carriers severely confine the photocatalytic behavior of the original g-C 3 N 4 . In this work, using thioureas and bismuth citrate as precursors, Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunction photocatalytic materials were successfully in-situ constructed by a one-step solid phase method. Suffering from 4 h visible-light shining, the amount of H 2 evolution over 1.5 wt% Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunctions has reached 826.2 μmol·g −1 , and the H 2 production rate over Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunctions achieves 236.1 μmol·g −1 ·h −1 , which is 7 times as high as that of the pure g-C 3 N 4 . Construction of Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 not only adjusts the band structures but also improves the visible light response capacity of g-C 3 N 4 . The rapid transfer of photogenerated charge pairs between Bi 2 S 3 and g-C 3 N 4 interfaces facilitates the separation of photo-excited charge pairs, sequentially boosting the photocatalytic H 2 production rate. Combined with the various characterization and analysis results, the reasonable and possible mechanism for enhancement in the performance of Bi 2 S 3 /g-C 3 N 4 heterojunction photocatalytic materials was proposed. This work offers potential insight into the boosted photocatalytic performance of g-C 3 N 4 for H 2 production exposure to visible light by constructing the heterojunctions to efficiently separate the photo-induced charge pairs.