Regulation of the rutile/anatase TiO2 phase junction in-situ grown on –OH terminated Ti3C2T (MXene) towards remarkably enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Heterophase junction (HPJ) and hole trapping was regarded as effective strategies to improve photogenerated carrier separation and photocatalytic performance. In this work, a TiO2 HPJ with tunable anatase/rutile ratio was in-situ grown on –OH terminated Ti3C2Tx MXene for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production via a simple hydrothermal route in the presence of HCl. The number of anatase/rutile phase junction and TiO2/Ti3C2Tx heterojunction could be readily regulated by HCl concentration and hydrothermal duration, respectively. The optimized photocatalyst exhibited few layers Ti3C2Tx MXene embedded into TiO2 with an atomic scale interface, containing a large amount of rutile/anatase phase junction. The mass and surface area normalized hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of A/R-TiO2/Ti3C2Tx-36–0.25 (0.2 wt% Pt) achieved 4672.0 μmol g-1h−1 and 244.6 μmol h−1 m−2, which were 3.76 and 9.8 times higher than those of commercial P25 (0.2 wt% Pt), respectively. Apparent quantum yield of 27.11% at 350 nm also obtained on the optimum photocatalyst. The surface chemical analysis showed that the ethylene glycol treated Ti3C2Tx MXene adsorbed a large amount of –OH on the surface which enabled a low work function (Φ = 2.28 eV). Therefore, photo-generated carriers were separated at the anatase/rutile phase junction interface, and photo-generated holes on TiO2 valance band were trapped by Ti3C2Tx (T = –OH), so that the photocatalyst had remarkable charge separation and photocatalytic HER efficiency. This study could shed light on the new approach to the rational design of high-efficiency MXene-based heterophase junction photocatalysts.