Synthesis and photocatalytic activity evaluation of Au/g-C3N4 material for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

In this research, we report on the synthesis of Au/g-C3N4 material and study the effect of Au deposition on g-C3N4to optimize its photocatalytic performance. The presence of Au significantly enhances the light absorption and reduces the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs leading to improve the H2 evolution efficiency. The highly improved efficiency is also due to the efficient transfer of photoelectrons between the g-C3N4and Au molecules. The report indicates that the chemical reduction method to deposit gold nanoparticles on g-C3N4is an appropriate method with significant photocatalytic efficiency. The results open up another path for the synthesis of Au/g-C3N4for hydrogen evolution applications.