CuAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) and polymeric carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄, GCNN) were assembled to construct a set of novel 2D/2D CuAl-LDH/GCNN heterostructures. These materials were tested towards H₂ and O₂ generation from water splitting using visible-light irradiation. Compared to pristine materials, the heterostructures displayed strongly enhanced visible-light H₂ evolution, dependent on the LDH content, which acts as a cocatalyst, replacing the benchmark Pt. The optimal LDH loading was achieved for 0.2CuAl-LDH/GCNN that exhibited an increased number of active sites and showed a trade-off between charge separation efficiency and light shading, resulting in a 32-fold increase in the amount of evolved H₂ compared with GCNN. In addition, the 0.2CuAl-LDH/GCNN heterostructure generated 1.5 times more O₂ than GCNN. The higher photocatalytic performance was due to efficient charge carriers’ separation at the heterojunction interface via an S-Scheme (corroborated by work function, steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence studies), enhanced utilisation of longer-wavelength photons (> 460 nm) and higher surface area available for the catalytic reactions.

CuAl层状双氢氧化物（LDH）和聚合氮化碳（gC ₃ N ₄，GCNN）被组装起来构建了一组新型2D/2D CuAl-LDH/GCNN异质结构。使用可见光照射对这些材料进行水分解生成H ₂和O _{2的测试。}与原始材料相比，异质结构表现出强烈增强的可见光H ₂演化，这取决于LDH含量，LDH含量充当助催化剂，取代了基准Pt。0.2CuAl-LDH/GCNN 实现了最佳 LDH 负载，其活性位点数量增加，并在电荷分离效率和遮光之间进行权衡，导致演化出的 H ₂量增加了 32 倍。与 GCNN。此外，0.2CuAl-LDH/GCNN异质结构产生的O ₂比GCNN多1.5倍。更高的光催化性能是由于通过 S 方案在异质结界面处实现了载流子的有效分离（通过功函数、稳态和时间分辨光致发光研究证实）、增强了对较长波长光子 (> 460 nm) 的利用以及可用于催化反应的更高表面积。