Fabrication of SnS₂/C₃N₅ heterojunction photocatalyst for highly efficient hydrogen production and organic pollutant degradation

The semiconductor photocatalysis are considered as one of the most promising candidates in hydrogen energy source and environmental remediation area. In this paper, flower-shaped SnS₂ is successfully combined on g-C₃N₅, and the well matching band structure successfully constitutes a new Type-II heterojunction. As expected, the photocatalytic hydrogen production experiment showed that the quantity of hydrogen produced on 5% SnS₂/C₃N₅ was 922.5 μmol/(h·g), which is 3.6 times higher than that of pure g-C₃N₅. Meanwhile, in photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue, 5% SnS₂/C₃N₅ composite material can degrade 95% of contaminants within 40 minutes, showing good photocatalytic degradation performance. The mechanism study indicates that SnS₂/C₃N₅ heterojunction improves the photogenerated charge migration rate and reduces the electron-hole recombination rate, and effectively improves the photocatalytic performance of g-C₃N₅. This work provides a new idea for designing C₃N₅-based heterojunctions with efficient hydrogen production and degradation performance.