A new Ni-diaminoglyoxime-g-C3N4complex towards efficient photocatalytic ethanol splitting via a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) mechanism

We report a novel Ni-diaminoglyoxime-g-C3N4(Ni-DAG-CN) complex for H(2)evolution through photocatalytic ethanol splitting. Compared to that of pristine g-C3N4, Ni-DAG-CN exhibits a 21-fold enhancement of photocatalytic activity (296.1 mu mol h(-1)g(-1)) under irradiation with excellent stability. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to a proposed ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) mechanism, which is illustrated both experimentally and theoretically. This work provides great potential in the future design of low-cost, high-performance photocatalysts for H(2)evolution from alcohol splitting.