Constructing electron transport channel of SnO2/BaSO4 on g-C3N4 for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 production

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) is confronted with the issue of poor utilization of photogenerated charge carriers, thereby leading to limited performance of photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) production, which restricts its potential application. Herein, the electron transport material SnO 2 /BaSO 4 was synthesized to integrate with g-C 3 N 4 for addressing the above problem. Various characterizations were conducted to investigate the g-C 3 N 4 -SnO 2 /BaSO 4 photocatalyst, and it demonstrated that photogenerated electrons from g-C 3 N 4 expeditiously migrate to SnO 2 /BaSO 4 nanoparticles, which markedly hindered photogenerated carriers’ recombination. Subsequently, the g-C 3 N 4 -SnO 2 /BaSO 4 photocatalyst demonstrated promoted photocatalytic H 2 production at a rate of 14.2 μmol h −1 under visible-light illumination, which was 2.5 times higher than that of pristine g-C 3 N 4 . • SnO 2 /BaSO 4 electron transport material was synthesized by the wet etching method. • The integration of SnO 2 /BaSO 4 with g-C 3 N 4 promoted the visible-light-driven photocatalytic H 2 production. • SnO 2 /BaSO 4 acted as the electron transport channel to facilitate the photogenerated electrons transport of g-C 3 N 4 .