Inexpensive Carbon Based Co-Catalyst Modified Zr-MOF Towards Photocatalytic H₂O₂ and H₂ Production

The photocatalytic H₂O₂ and H₂ production are the utmost encouraging paths to overcome the imminent energy crisis. For accomplishing these goals the photocatalysts needs to be stable, trap photons and superior exciton separation, yet these properties are scanty for aqueous stable UiO-66-NH₂. Hence, UiO-66-NH₂ is armed with inexpensive Carbon nanoparticles that were incorporated through facile solvothermal procedure are employed towards photocatalytic H₂ and H₂O₂ production. The UC-2 composite exhibits improved photocatalytic activity, which was ascribed to the composites capacity to suppress exciton re-combination, enhanced photon capture and to facilitate quicker charge transfer that was observed from UV-Vis DRS, EIS, PL, TRPL and transient photocurrent analysis. Composite UC-2 exhibits an H₂O₂ generation rate of 33.2 μmol h^-1 in an O₂ saturated conditions with isopropyl alcohol and water underneath visible light irradiation. This H₂O₂ generation rate was nearly three folds higher than the pristine UiO-66-NH₂ MOF. Moreover, the produced materials were subjected to a photocatalytic H₂ evolution research, and similar results were obtained, indicating that UC-2 has the maximum H₂ evolution capacity at 298.1 μmol h^-1. Typically, the light trapping tendency, remarkable electron transfer capacity and electron capture capacity of the carbon NPs based co-catalyst aids to improve the overall photo-reaction performance thereby producing superior photocatalytic H₂O₂ and H₂ as a sustainable energy alternative.