Au tailored on g-C3N4/TiO2 heterostructure for enhanced photocatalytic performance

Inhibiting the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers is of great significance to improve the photocatalytic performance. For hybrid heterostructure photocatalysts, the noble metal is often used to modulate the interfacial charge behavior, which is closed related to metal states. Herein, we construct graphite-like C3N4 and TiO2 (g-C3N4/TiO2) heterostructure with Au nanoparticles tailored on g-C3N4 to form multiple charge separation for high-efficiency charge separation. Due to the enhanced charge separation, Au/g-C3N4/TiO2 heterostructures exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for pollutant removal and water splitting. The apparent rate constant of Rh6G photodegradation achieves 2 times higher increased compared with different g-C3N4/TiO2 heterostructures with Au modulation. Active species trapping experiments indicate that superoxide radicals (·O2-) play a most important role in catalytic process. This work provides insights into the distinct roles of Au in heterostructure for significantly enhanced charge separation and paves the way forward in designing high-efficiency heterostructure photocatalysts with noble metal decorated.