Competitive Self-Assembly of PANI Confined MoS<sub>2</sub> Boosting the Photocatalytic Activity of the Graphitic Carbon Nitride
Tao Li, Jiandong Cui, Limin Gao, Yezhan Lin, Rui Li, Haiquan Xie, Yu Zhang, Kui Li
Abstract
The phosphomolybdic acid hydrate (PMo12)-based g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 with the conductive polyaniline mediator and the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst were designed and in situ fabricated onto earth-abundant and environment-friendly g-C3N4 for the first time. The PMo12 not only polymerized the aniline (ANI) monomer but also oxidized the thiourea and formed the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst at a low temperature, and hence the PANI embraced the as-formed MoS2 and refined its particle size for more marginal active sites. Consequently, the optimal g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 exhibited a very high photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of 29.70 μmol/h under visible light irradiation, which was 11.4 and 270.0 times larger than that of g-C3N4-MoS2 and the pristine g-C3N4, respectively, indicating the extremely important role of the synergistic effect of the high conductivity of PANI and PANI-refined nanosized MoS2 and providing a facile method for the design of novel high-performance catalyst for the solar conversion.