Constructing hydrogen bond based melam/WO3 heterojunction with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

•A hydrogen bond based heterojunction photocatalyst is fabricated by planetary milling treatment.•The photocatalytic performance for CH3CHO and (CH3)2CHOH degradation is evaluated.•The photocatalytic performance for H2O2 generation is detected.•Melam/WO3 shows much higher activity than bulk WO3.•A mechanism based on hydrogen bond of heterojunction photocatalyst is proposed.

Hydrogen bond based visible-light-response heterojunction photocatalyst Melam/WO3 (MW) has been fabricated for the first time by facile planetary milling treatment. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis reveal the formation of hydrogen bonds (NH···O) between melam and WO3. As compared to WO3, the MW not only complete decomposes acetaldehyde, but also shows 10 times and 12 times higher photocatalytic activity for photo-degradation of 2-propanol and photo-generation of H2O2, respectively, under the visible-light irradiation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy suggests that the potential difference between N and O (N+H⋯O−) in the heterojunction provides the driving force for the charge transfer from WO3 to melam. Furthermore, hydrogen bonds offer an ultrafast electron pathway for heterojunction. This study demonstrates that hydrogen bond based heterojunction could be a promising approach for developing a new photocatalyst with efficient visible-light photocatalytic activity.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (95KB)Download full-size image