Construction of a 3D/2D plasmonic Z-scheme heterojunction with electrostatic self-assembly for full-spectrum solar-light driven photocatalytic protons reduction

A key solution for high-efficiency solar-to-fuel conversion is fabrication of semiconductor photocatalysts with ultra-broad spectral absorption and high charge-carriers utilization efficiency. Here, we report a non-metallic plasmonic Z-scheme photocatalyst with three-dimensional (3D) W₁₈O₄₉ hierarchical microflowers and two-dimensional (2D) g-C₃N₄ nanosheets constructed by an electrostatic self-assembly method. The hydrogen production performance of the heterojunction is three times that of pure g-C₃N₄. This is ascribed to the efficient harvesting of photon energy from the ultraviolet to near-infrared region and the improved charge-carrier transfer on the tight-contact heterojunction interface. This work not only provides an effective reference for the construction of heterostructure based on W₁₈O₄₉ and g-C₃N₄, but also helps design materials for satisfactory solar energy conversion performance through electrostatic self-assembly methods.