A novel two-dimensional hybrid polymer photocatalyst black-MoO3/polyimide was synthesized by one-pot thermopolymerization of monomers, ammonium molybdate, and thiourea at mild temperatures. Thiourea and ammonium molybdate as fluxing agents promote the formation of black molybdenum oxide (BMO) on polyimide (PI) and enhance the crystallinity of PI. It is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and Fourier transform infrared that the strong interaction between BMO and PI leads to the formation of a Mo-N coordination bond through the coordination of N atoms of heptazine units to the unsaturated Mo atoms of BMO and results in a large number of Mo5+ cations in BMO/PI. UV-vis and photoluminescence reveal that the visible light absorption of BMO/PI was increased and the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole obviously was significantly enhanced, which facilitates the improvement of the photocatalytic activity of BMO/PI. This work provides a new approach to synthesizing efficient inorganic-organic hybrid semiconductor photocatalysts.

A self-organized polyimide supermolecule with high performance in photocatalytic hydrogen production (1640 μmol h−1 g−1).

A monolayer MoS quantum dot confined polyimide (MQDs/PI) photocatalyst was synthesized by using a facile immersion-hydrothermal method. The investigations on the optical and electronic properties of MQDs/PI composites reveal that the strong quantum confinement effect of MQDs results in a blue-shift of the absorption band edge of PI, and the interfacial electronic interaction between MQDs and PI improves the charge transfer rate of MQDs/PI. The ultra-small size of 3.0 nm and perfect crystals of MQDs endow MQDs/PI composites with plenty of active sites and fast charge transfer, thus resulting in a 360% enhancement in photocatalytic hydrogen production compared with that of Pt/PI at the same loading amount of Pt. This discovery provides a new clue for the development of an efficient and sustainable non-noble metal photocatalyst.