Anchoring nickel complex to g-C3N4 enables an efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction through ligand-to-metal charge transfer mechanism

Wen-Chen Zhou; Wei-De Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.122

Anchoring nickel complex to g-C₃N₄ enables an efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction through ligand-to-metal charge transfer mechanism

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Jun 15:616:791-802. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.122. Epub 2022 Feb 26.

Authors

Wen-Chen Zhou¹, Wei-De Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510641, People's Republic of China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510641, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: zhangwd@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 35248966
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.122

Abstract

The development of stable and efficient non-noble metal-based photocatalysts for water splitting is currently a key but challenging process for effective conversion and storage of sustainable energy. Here, we designed a new non-noble metal composite photocatalyst by covalently connecting nickel molecular ligand (NiL) to the graphitized carbon nitride (CN) framework for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation. Compared to CN, NiL-modified CN (NiL/CN) shows excellent photogenerated carrier migration rate. Without Pt as a co-catalyst, NiL/CN exhibits high photocatalytic activity (23.4 μmol h^-1) with high stability. Experiments and theoretical calculations disclose that ligand-metal charge transfer (LMCT) mechanism plays a key role on the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. This work provides a promising method for future designing low-cost, high-performance photocatalysts for hydrogen production under solar light.

Keywords: Carbon nitride; Hydrogen evolution; LMCT; Nickel complex.