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Metal–organic framework-templated g-C3N4–NiCoP2–porous carbon (PC) ternary hybrid nanomaterials were designed by taking full advantage of the metal–organic framework (MOF) derivative in the photocatalytic reaction for the first time. The MOF-templated porous structure could prevent the stacking of the carbon nitride nanosheet, and the carefully designed NiCoP2, possessing low electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) overpotential and flat-band potential, could improve the separation as well as the utilization efficiency of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Moreover, the ligand-templated porous carbon, acting as an interface mediator between g-C3N4 and the NiCoP2 cocatalyst, could boost the charge carrier transport. Consequently, the optimal ternary g-C3N4–NiCoP2–PC heterostructure exhibited enhanced photocatalytic HER performance and considerable H2 evolution performance of 5.8 μmol/h/g under UV–visible light with stoichiometric H2O2 production even in pure water. This work took full advantage of the MOF derivative for improving the photocatalytic reaction activity and provided a method that can hopefully help in designing a novel high-performance catalyst for solar conversion.

This work reported the uniform distribution of CdS nanoparticles over the MOF-derived porous NiO skeleton. With the PVP surface modification and the residual carbon, the formation of CdS-porous NiO exhibited an excellent photocatalytic performance.

MoS2–transition metal heterojunctions were adopted as cocatalysts on the earth-abundant g-C3N4 and displayed a synergistic effect on improving the photocatalytic performance.

The phosphomolybdic acid hydrate (PMo12)-based g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 with the conductive polyaniline mediator and the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst were designed and in situ fabricated onto earth-abundant and environment-friendly g-C3N4 for the first time. The PMo12 not only polymerized the aniline (ANI) monomer but also oxidized the thiourea and formed the nanosized MoS2 cocatalyst at a low temperature, and hence the PANI embraced the as-formed MoS2 and refined its particle size for more marginal active sites. Consequently, the optimal g-C3N4-PANI-MoS2 exhibited a very high photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of 29.70 μmol/h under visible light irradiation, which was 11.4 and 270.0 times larger than that of g-C3N4-MoS2 and the pristine g-C3N4, respectively, indicating the extremely important role of the synergistic effect of the high conductivity of PANI and PANI-refined nanosized MoS2 and providing a facile method for the design of novel high-performance catalyst for the solar conversion.