Heterointerface and crystallinity engineering of Ru/RuS2 dual co-catalysts for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

In this paper, the Ru/RuS 2 nanoparticles as dual co-catalysts were self-assembled on the surface of g-C 3 N 4 nanotubes (Ru/RuS 2 /g-C 3 N 4 NTs) for photocatalytic H 2 production. The Ru/RuS 2 /g-C 3 N 4 NTs showed greatly enhanced photocatalytic H 2 production activity (1409 μmol·g −1 ·h −1 ), 1.16 times of RuS 2 /g-C 3 N 4 NTs (1212 μmol·h −1 ·g −1 ), 10.51 times of Ru/g-C 3 N 4 NTs (134 μmol·g −1 ·h −1 ), and 82.88 times of the pure g-C 3 N 4 NTs (17 μmol·g −1 ·h −1 ). Besides, the apparent quantum yield value (AQE) of Ru/RuS 2 /g-C 3 N 4 NTs is 3.92% at 370 nm. Ru/RuS 2 as dual co-catalysts are self-assembled on the surface of g-C 3 N 4 NTs and show strong electronic synergistic interaction between the interfaces, reduce Δ G H* of RuS 2 and desorption energy of Ru, and promote the selectivity and activity of HER kinetically and thermodynamically respectively, which exhibits higher photogenerated carrier concentration and lower charge migration resistance than RuS 2 and Ru, showing the synergistic effect to facilitate the generation and migration of carriers and provides active sites for photocatalysis .