Low-Cost Ni3B/Ni(OH)2 as an Ecofriendly Hybrid Cocatalyst for Remarkably Boosting Photocatalytic H2 Production over g-C3N4 Nanosheets

Photocatalytic hydrogen (H-2) evolution is an appealing and promising means for productive solar-to-chemical energy conversion. g-C3N4(CN) is an exciting semiconductor, but its undesirable pristine activity seriously limited the potential for large-scale application. Herein, we, for the first time, demonstrated that the low-cost nickel boride (Ni3B)/nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)(2)) is an ecofriendly hybrid cocatalyst for remarkably boosting visible-light H-2 evolution over CN. The maximum H-2 evolution rate of CN-3%Ni3B-2%Ni(OH)(2) reaches 352.43 mu mol g(-1) h(-1), with an apparent quantum efficiency of 0.70% at 405 nm, which is much higher than that of pure CN, only 0.1 mu mol g(-1) h(-1). In the cycling experiment, the ternary CN-3%Ni3B-2%Ni(OH)(2) shows relatively high stability in the triethanolamine solution. More importantly, the promoted charge separation and reduced overpotential were demonstrated to be responsible for the significantly boosted visible-light H-2 generation over CN nanosheet-based photocatalysts due to the loading of Ni3B/Ni(OH)(2) cocatalyst. It is believed that this study will provide a suitable strategy to rationally design a low-cost, facile-fabrication, and ecofriendly cocatalyst for efficient visible-light hydrogen evolution of CN nanosheet-based photocatalysts.