Amorphous NiCoB-coupled MAPbI3 for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

It was thought that the organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite MAPbI(3) could be used to collect visible light for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, its ability to generate H-2 is limited. Herein, we synthesized amorphous NiCoB through a redox method and coupled it with MAPbI(3) to form the NiCoB/MAPbI(3) composite photocatalyst by electrostatic self-assembly. 30% NiCoB/MAPbI(3) exhibited the maximum H-2 generation yield of 2625.57 mu mol g(-1) h(-1), which was approximately 114 fold that of pristine MAPbI(3) and much better than that of Pt/MAPbI(3). In addition to the excellent photocatalytic HER capability, NiCoB/MAPbI(3) maintained good stability in the 24 h cycling hydrogen evolution experiment. The photoelectric analysis showed that NiCoB as a cocatalyst could realize rapid charge separation. This work can offer a reference for the construction of efficient photocatalysts based on lead halide perovskites.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that coupling amorphous NiCoB with MAPbI(3) to form the NiCoB/MAPbI(3) composite photocatalyst can achieve a high H-2 generation yield, significantly outperforming Pt/MAPbI(3).