Facile development of CoAl-LDHs/RGO nanocomposites as photocatalysts for efficient hydrogen generation from water splitting under visible-light irradiation

Abstract

The development of clean and renewable energy has been recently receiving great interest because of increasing environmental concerns and depletion of conventional fossil fuels. Photocatalytic water splitting is considered as a low-cost and high-efficiency technology for the generation of green hydrogen (H₂) fuel. In the present study, we successfully prepared cobalt–aluminum layered double hydroxides/reduced graphene oxide (CoAl-LDHs/RGO) nanocomposites via a simple solvothermal method and used them as photocatalytic materials for H₂ production by water splitting. The photocatalytic water splitting result indicated that the as-prepared CoAl-LDHs/RGO nanocomposites displayed enhanced H₂ production of 1571.84 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ in the presence of a ruthenium (Ru) photosensitizer as compared with pure CoAl-LDHs (430.14 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹) under visible-light irradiation. This enhanced performance of CoAl-LDHs/RGO nanocomposites was mainly due to the efficient transfer and separation of photo-generated charge carriers by a strong electronic coupling effect at the interface of CoAl-LDHs and RGO. Therefore, the obtained CoAl-LDHs/RGO nanocomposite can be a promising photocatalytic material for energy harvesting and environmental remediation.