Dual interface optimization of melamine cyanurate/C3N4/Cu plasmonic photocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen evolution performance

Interfacial carrier recombination is the main reason for the low efficiency of present photocatalysts, and it becomes much more serious for future multi-component photocatalysts. Therefore, the realization of multi-interface optimization on photocatalysts is pivotal to enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. Herein, melamine cyanurate/carbon vacancy modified carbon nitride/Cu (MC/V C -CN/Cu) composite was developed with enhanced charge transfer through dual interface optimization, leading to improved photocatalytic performance. Carbon vacancies were first introduced into CN, and strong N-Cu bonds can be formed between hanging nitrogen atoms and photodeposited Cu nanoparticles (NPs). Melamine cyanurate (MC) molecules were then grafted on CN by the formed N-H⋯O=C hydrogen bonds to extract holes from CN. The realization of excellent dual interface optimization can enhance the hot electron injection from Cu NPs to CN and hole extraction from CN in MC/V C -CN/Cu photocatalyst, which leads to the increased H 2 production efficiency by 280 %. The enhancement mechanism of the dual interface optimization is systematically estimated by theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration. This study offers a general and effective dual interface optimization scheme for constructing efficient ternary photocatalysts.