In situ W/O Co-doped hollow carbon nitride tubular structures with enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution

Heteroatom co-doping has been considered as an effective strategy to simultaneously overcome intrinsic shortcomings of g-C₃N₄ to achieve enhanced photocatalytic properties, in which the involved dopants could play its role in altering electronic structure, optical absorption and charge separation of the catalyst. Herein, W/O co-doped hollow g-C₃N₄ tubular structures are successfully obtained for the first time via a one-step thermal decomposition. By W/O co-doping, architecture of g-C₃N₄ is able to be modulated with enhanced optical absorption towards visible region. In addition, narrowed band gap and restrained charge recombination are conducive for the excitation of electron-hole pairs and transportation. Photocatalytic water splitting tests indicate that the co-doped hollow tubular g-C₃N₄ structures enable superior activity for generating hydrogen up to 403.57 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ driven by visible light, nearly 2.5 times as high as that of pristine g-C₃N₄. This work presents a rational strategy to design co-doped g-C₃N₄ as an efficient visible-light-driven photocatalyst.