Mesoporous composite NiCr2O4/Al-MCM-41: A novel photocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen production

A novel photocatalyst NiCr2O4/Al-MCM-41, using Al-MCM-41 zeolite as a support loaded with NiCr2O4 was successfully prepared by a facile sol-gel method and followed by calcination at 700 degrees C. The photocatalytic hydrogen production through water splitting was tested under visible-light irradiation for 3 h. According to the results of hydrogen evolution, the NiCr2O4/Al-MCM-41 hybrid composite displayed higher hydrogen production compared with individual NiCr2O4 or Al-MCM-41. This revealed that NiCr2O4 incorporated into the Al-MCM-41 zeolite effectively facilitated the photocatalytic activity. The highest hydrogen generation was obtained from 50%NiCr2O4/Al-MCM-41, whose hydrogen generation (8.92 mmol/g) was enhanced up to 2.4 times as much as individual NiCr2O4 (3.75 mmol/g). The main reason for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the hybrid photocatalysts was ascribed to the excellent synergistic effect of NiCr2O4 and Al-MCM-41 zeolite. The mesoporous Al-MCM-41 catalyst support increased the dispersion of NiCr2O4 with more active sites. In addition, Al-MCM-41 zeolite promoted the charge transfer and inhibited the rapid recombination of photo-generated electrons-holes as electron acceptor and donor. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.