Novel g-C₃N₄/TiO₂ nanorods with enhanced photocatalytic activity for water treatment and H₂ production

The g-C₃N₄ was peeled off into nanosheets structure by ultrasonic, and then combined with TiO₂ nanorods, the obtained composite was subjected to secondary high-temperature calcination to obtain a photocatalyst with smaller interfacial spacing, high photoelectron transfer rate and high photocatalytic performance. The structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. It was found that g-C₃N₄ in the form of nanosheets was uniformly attached to the surface of TiO₂ nanorods. UV–Vis diffuse reflection spectra (UV–Vis) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were obtained to confirm that full coverage of the ultraviolet region to the visible region was achieved and the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs was effectively inhibited. Degradation experiments and hydrogen evolution experiments showed that the composites photocatalytic properties were enhanced. The degradation rate of rhodamine B (RhB) at 35 min is achieved 98.5%, hydrogen production rate as high as 150 umol/g/h. The catalyst has very good photocatalytic stability. The research in this paper has an important impact on the photocatalytic preparation of hydrogen.