Ni3(C3N3S3)2 coordination polymer as a novel broad spectrum-driven photocatalyst for water splitting into hydrogen

Sparked by the increasing energy crisis, much research has been focused on seeking board spectrum driven photocatalysts for water splitting. Herein, the Ni-3(C3N3S3)(2) coordination polymer was firstly synthesized by a simple wet-chemical method, as a novel board spectrum-driven photocatalyst for water splitting. The as-prepared Ni-3(C3N3S3)(2) exhibited excellent photocatcalytic H-2-producing activity from the half-reaction of water splitting without the help of any sacrificial agents or cocatalysts, and the amounts of H-2 production are 65.3, 53.9 and 16.3 mol corresponding to UV (X <400 nm), visible (400 < X < 760 nm) and near-infrared (X > 760 nm) irradiation after 24 h, respectively. Another valuable finding is that after adding triethanolamine as a sacrificial donor, the average H-2 evolution efficiencies on Ni-3(C3N3S3)(2) were efficaciously increased by around 2-fold with the H-2 production value of 112.6, 93.3 and 30.1 mol for 24 h under the UV light, visible light and near-infrared light exposure, respectively. More importantly, the stability of Ni-3(C3N3S3)(2) was effectively improved by means of triethanolamine. The results facilitate the increasing attention of narrow band gap non-noble metal coordination polymers treated as board spectrum-driven photocatalysts for expanding the utilization of solar light. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.