Facile preparation of metallic IT phase molybdenum selenide as cocatalyst coupled with graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

Low-cost, highly active and efficient alternative co-catalysts that can replace precious metals such as Au and Pt are urgently needed for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we show that 1T phase MoSe2 can act as the co-catalyst in the 1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composites and we synthesize this composite by a one-step hydrothermal method to promote photocatalytic H-2 generation. Our prepared 1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composite exhibits highly enhanced photocatalytic H-2 production compared to that of g-C3N4 nanosheets (NSs) only. The 7 wt%-1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composite presents a considerably improved photocatalytic HER rate (6.95 mmol.h(-1).g(-1)), approximately 90 times greater than that of pure g-C3N4(0.07 mmol.h(-1)g(-1)). Moreover, under illumination at lambda = 370 nm, the apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of the 7 wt%-1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composite reaches 14.0%. Furthermore, the 1T-MoSe2/gC(3)N(4) composites still maintain outstanding photocatalytic HER stability. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, the 1T phase MoSe2 was utilized as a co-catalyst in 1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composites to significantly enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. The composite exhibited a considerably improved HER rate, with the 7 wt%-1T-MoSe2/g-C3N4 composite showing the best performance.