The photocatalytic overall water splitting hydrogen production of g-C3N4/CdS hollow core-shell heterojunction via the HER/OER matching of Pt/MnOx

Abstract The matching of HER/OER process is a significant issue for photocatalytic overall water splitting. The MnOx/g-C3N4/CdS/Pt hollow core-shell heterojunction is prepared via a continuous chemical-annealing-photoreduction method. There, the as-prepared MnOx/g-C3N4/CdS/Pt composite exhibits an obvious HER enhancement of about ∼80 folds than single CdS, a remarkable overall water splitting performance of about ∼1303.39(H2)/641.60(O2) μmol∙g-1∙h-1, and a decent photocatalytic stability, which can be mainly ascribed to that, with the remarkable matching of HER/OER process, the Pt nanoparticles with quickly charge carriers transport can accept/diffuse the photo-generated electrons into water, the high chemical valance manganese ions can excite the hole­related species and accelerate the H2O2 decomposition, the formation of g-C3N4/CdS heterojunction can promote photo-generated carriers separation/transport via the appropriate potential, and the hollow structure can increase the HER/OER active sites, solar efficiency and stability.