Au induced in-situ formation of ultra-stable 1T-MoS2 on polymeric carbon nitride toward promoted photocatalytic hydrogen production

The co-catalysts engineering, especially the non-noble traditional metal dichalcogenides (MoS2), is a promising strategy in promoting photocatalytic water splitting for the green hydrogen gas production. Herein, we constructed a novel Au induced 1T-MoS2 modified S-doped-g-C3N4 (denoted as MASCN) photocatalyst. The experimental and characterizations results have showed that the sulfur doped g-C3N4 (SCN) could increase the dispersity of the Au nanoparticles (NPs) and help to improve the combination between SCN and Au NPs to promote electrical conductivity. More importantly, ultra-stable 1T-MoS2 was in situ formed within the induction of Au nanoparticles (NPs), thus providing high-density active sites and decreasing the interfacial charge transfer. As a result, the optimal sample exhibits a drastically enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of 4708.3 μmol/g/h, over 87-fold the rate of pure SCN (54 μmol/g/h) and appropriately 25-fold the rate of MoS2 modified SCN (denoted as MSCN) (185 μmol/g/h). The hybrids also manifest excellent stability and durability in cycle. This study highlights the construction strategy of MoS2 based co-catalyst for solar water splitting reactions and may provide insightful understandings for other photocatalytic applications.