Decorating CoP and Pt Nanoparticles on Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets to Promote Overall Water Splitting by Conjugated Polymers

The splitting of water into H-2 and O-2 using solar energy is one of the key steps in artificial photosynthesis for the future production of renewable energy. Here, we show the first use of CoP and Pt nanoparticles as dual co-catalysts to modify graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) polymer to achieve overall water splitting under visible light irradiation. Our findings demonstrate that loading dual co-catalysts on delaminated g-C3N4 imparts surface redox sites on the g-C3N4 nanosheets that can not only promote catalytic kinetics but also promote charge separation and migration in the soft interface, thus improving the photocatalytic efficiency for overall water splitting. This robust, abundant, and stable photocatalyst based on covalent organic frameworks is demonstrated to hold great promise by forming heterojunctions with CoP and Pt for catalyzing the direct splitting of water into stoichiometric H-2 and O-2 using energy from photons.