Synergistic effect of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene on g-C₃N₄/ZnFe₂O₄ nano-composite for photocatalytic solar fuel (H₂) production via water-splitting

A novel Ti₃C₂T_x MXene decorated g-C₃N₄/ZnFe₂O₄ ternary nano composite for photocatalytic H₂ production was synthesized via ultra-sonication assisted wet-impregnation approach. The photocatalytic H₂ activity test were conducted under sunlight irradiation with Glycerol as sacrificial reagent. Different characterization analysis was carried out to examine the properties of the as-synthesized photocatalyst. The optimized 6 wt% g-C₃N₄/ZnFe₂O₄/Ti₃C₂T_x MXene ternary nano composite exhibit outstanding performance of photocatalytic H₂ production of 22755.84 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹. Which is nearly 20, 269 and 194-fold that of 15 wt% g-C₃N₄/ZnFe₂O₄, ZnFe₂O₄ as well as pure g-C₃N₄, respectively. This remarkable achievement can be ascribe due to fact that there is excellent transfer of photo-excited electron from 6 wt% Ti₃C₂T_x MXene g-C₃N₄/ZnFe₂O₄ photocatalyst which strongly help in hindering the high electron and holes pairs recombination rate, also due to the decreased in band gap energy of g-C₃N₄ due to the formation of heterostructure between ZnFe₂O₄ and g-C₃N₄. Furthermore, the as fabricated ternary nano-composite show excellent H₂ generation stability and reusability. As there is no noticeable decrease in the performance of photocatalytic of H₂ generation detected. This article may provide a clear insight for a new reasonable and synthesis of photocatalyst with excellent photocatalytic H₂ generation performance.