The rate of visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting is greatly enhanced from zero to 555 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ through hybridizing a suitable amount of CdS particles onto the micro-SiC surface. It suggests that the hybridization is responsible for lowering the surface activation energy of SiC and well-connected SiC/CdS interfaces serve as active sites for photocatalytic reactions, leading to this significant enhancement. The self-corrosion of CdS is simultaneously avoided and the composites show high stability. Our results demonstrate that SiC powder with high electron mobility, low cost, availability of large amounts and environmental friendliness has potential to become an efficient catalyst that might find practical applications.

TS-1/C₃N₄ composites were prepared by calcining the precursors with cooling crystallization method and were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), UV-Vis diffuse reflection spectrum (DRS) and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm. The photocatalytic performance of TS-1/C₃N₄ composites was investigated to degrade Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The results showed that all composites exhibited better photocatalytic performance than pristine TS-1 and C₃N₄; TS-1/C₃N₄-B composite (the measured mass ratio of TS-1 to C₃N₄ is 1:4) had best performance, with a rate constant of 0.04166 min⁻¹, which is about two and ten times higher than those of C₃N₄ and TS-1, respectively. We attributed the enhanced photocatalytic performance of TC-B to the optimized heterostructure formed by TS-1 and C₃N₄ with proper proportion. From the results of photoluminescence spectra (PL) and the enhanced photocurrent, it is concluded that photogenerated electrons and holes were separated more effectively in TS-1/C₃N₄ composites. The contribution of the three main active species for photocatalytic degradation followed a decreasing order of ·O₂⁻, ·OH and h⁺. The degradation products of RhB were identified by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and the possible photocatalytic degradation pathways were proposed.