Fabrication of Two-Dimensional B-Doped C3N4 Nanosheet-Encapsulated One-Dimensional Rod-like Mo-MOF-Derived MoS2 Heterojunctions for Enhanced Photocatalytic Ethanol Conversion and Synergistic Hydrogen Production

The photocatalytic conversion of ethanol and the simultaneous development of hydrogen technology play a role in solving the energy crisis and reducing environmental pollution. In this research, rod-like M-MoS2 serves as a channel for charge transfer, leading to superior photocatalytic activity compared to H-MoS2. Further, two-dimensional (2D) B-doped C3N4 (BCN) nanosheets were anchored on the one-dimensional (1D) rod-like M-MoS2 surface to form a 1D/2D heterojunction, with M-MoS2/BCN-0.08 (mass ratio of M-MoS2:BCN of 0.08:1) exhibiting the highest photocatalytic performance. Under visible light irradiation, the ethanol conversion rate reached 1.79% after 5 h of photocatalytic reaction per gram of catalyst, while generating 421 μmol of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), 5460 μmol of acetaldehyde (AA), and 5410 μmol of hydrogen gas (H2). This different characterization provides evidence that a significant amount of photoinduced electrons generated in BCN under illumination conditions rapidly transfer to the conduction band (CB) of M-MoS2 through the rod-like structure of M-MoS2, and finally transfer to Pt to promote the production of hydrogen gas. The photoinduced holes in the valence band (VB) of M-MoS2 are rapidly consumed by ethanol upon transferring to BCN, effectively separating the photoinduced electron–hole pairs and resulting in superior photocatalytic performance.