Noble-metal-free heterostructure for efficient hydrogen evolution in visible region: Molybdenum nitride/ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride

Molybdenum nitride (MoN) has been attracting increasing attention in recent years for the application of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. However, the application of MoN for photocatalytic H 2 evolution has seldom been reported. Here, we report that the sample with the heterostructure between Mo 2 N and 2D ultrathin g-C 3 N 4 nanosheet (CN) is fabricated via boil bathing method for the use of the visible light photocatalytic H 2 evolution. Without using any noble metal cocatalyst, the H 2 evolution rate of Mo 2 N/CN under visible light irradiation reaches 0.89 μmolg −1  h −1 , which is ≈148 times higher than that of pure CN. The photoelectron-chemical experiments suggest that the carriers in Mo 2 N/CN can separate and transfer easier than those in CN due to the effect of Mo 2 N as the modification of CN. The combination of the Mo 2 N and CN represents not only a simple but also an economical and powerful method for the highly effective photocatalytic H 2 generation in the visible region.