Journal
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
Volume 18, Issue 46, Pages 31534-31541Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c6cp05618k
Keywords
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Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2013CB632403]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51172090]
- Science and Technology Developing Funding of Jilin Province [20150203009GX]
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Nickel, a non-noble metal, is one of the most promising candidates for photocatalysis because it is inexpensive and an earth-abundant metal. Herein, Ni/CM-C3N4 nanocomposites with Ni as a cocatalyst were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed that Ni nanoparticles were loaded onto the surface of CM-C3N4. The prepared Ni/CM-C3N4 nanocomposites exhibited an enhanced hydrogen evolution activity. The most active catalyst contained 10% Ni and produced H-2 at a rate of 313.2 mu mol h(-1) g(-1), which was obviously higher than that of pure CM-C3N4. The results of photoluminescence (PL) and photoacoustics (PA) studies indicated that the recombination efficiency of photo-induced electron-hole pairs was decreased for CM-Ni10 as compared to that for unmodified CM-C3N4. The transient photovoltage (TPV) measurements directly demonstrated that the recombination time of electron-hole pairs in CM-Ni10 was prolonged. More importantly, the reversed surface photovoltage (SPV) and the declined surface photocurrent (SPC) response of CM-Ni10 revealed that the photogenerated electrons could be trapped by Ni, leading to a better separation efficiency and a superior hydrogen production. Finally, the possible mechanism is proposed to illuminate the photogenerated charge behavior between CM-C3N4 and Ni, which might provide a theoretical basis to develop efficient cocatalysts for photocatalytic water splitting.
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