Orderly-designed Ni₂P nanoparticles on g-C₃N₄ and UiO-66 for efficient solar water splitting

Stable and efficient photocatalyst is the key important research goals up to now. On account of the dominant performance of Ni₂P, g-C₃N₄ (graphitized carbonitride) and UiO-66 (Universitetet i Oslo) themselves, an orderly-designed assemble of g-C₃N₄/UiO-66/Ni₂P is successfully designed and assembled with capability of high-efficient dye-sensitized photocatalytic H₂ evolution. The electron transport routes are successfully adjusted and the hydrogen evolution is greatly improved. It exhibits synergistic effect on highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. The maximum amount of hydrogen evolution reaches about 200 μmol for 5 h over the g-C₃N₄/UiO-66/Ni₂P photocatalyst under the 5 W LED white light at 420 nm. The H₂ evolution rate is 12 times high than over g-C₃N₄. Such synergistically increased effect in photocatalytic properties is certified by related characterization results such as TEM, SEM, XPS, XRD, UV-vis DRS, Transient photocurrent and FT-IR etc. The above studies show that the Ni₂P nanoparticles modified on the g-C₃N₄/UiO-66 provides the more active sites and improves the efficiency of photo-generated charge separation. In addition, the possible mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen production is proposed.