Enhanced visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over porphyrin hybridized graphitic carbon nitride

Tetra (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) was loaded on the surface of Pt/g-C 3 N 4 via a simple adsorption process , and the microstructure and chemical structure of the composites were characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy , X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , UV–visible diffused reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Loading TCPP onto Pt/g-C 3 N 4 enhanced the visible-light-driven photocatalytic evolution of H 2 from water. The TCPP/Pt/g-C 3 N 4 composite with a TCPP loading of 1   wt% had the highest photoactivity, which was 2.1 times higher than that of Pt/g-C 3 N 4 . This improvement is attributed to enhanced visible light utilization by the TCPP/Pt/g-C 3 N 4 resulting from the strong visible light response of TCPP. In addition, the formed organic heterostructure between TCPP and g-C 3 N 4 with overlapping bad gaps accelerates the electron transfer and inhibits the recombination of the photogenerated electrons and holes on g-C 3 N 4 .