Issue 38, 2022

Improved H-adsorption ability of Cu in CuNi alloy nanodots toward the efficient photocatalytic H2-evolution activity of TiO2

Abstract

Compared with the noble metal Pt, the non-noble metal Cu as a cocatalyst exhibits a low hydrogen-evolution activity owing to its weak Cu–H bond (11 kcal mol−1), which inhibits hydrogen adsorption on Cu atoms for the hydrogen-evolution reaction of photocatalysts. Considering that the introduction of Ni with a strong Ni–H bond into Cu is beneficial for strengthening the H-adsorption ability of Cu, in this paper, the low-cost transition-metal Ni was directly introduced into Cu to form CuNi alloy nanodots as photocatalytic cocatalysts to enhance the hydrogen-evolution rate of TiO2. The CuNi alloy nanodots (2–3 nm) were photodeposited on the surface of a reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-modified TiO2 photocatalyst to generate CuNi-rGO/TiO2 by the pre-adsorption of Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions on graphene oxide (GO). Photocatalytic hydrogen-production data manifested that the CuNi-rGO/TiO2 photocatalyst achieved the highest hydrogen-production rate (10 411 μmol h−1 g−1), which was 53.7, 38.7, 1.8, and 2.2 times higher than that of pure TiO2, rGO/TiO2, Cu-rGO/TiO2, and Ni-rGO/TiO2, respectively. Density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations and mechanistic investigation showed that the introduction of Ni into Cu to form CuNi alloy nanodots improved the H-adsorption ability of Cu and optimized the H-adsorption free energy close to zero (0.046 eV) for boosting the hydrogen production rate of TiO2. This research presents a promising design of bimetallic alloy structures as H2-production cocatalysts for efficient photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Improved H-adsorption ability of Cu in CuNi alloy nanodots toward the efficient photocatalytic H2-evolution activity of TiO2

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Aug 2022
Accepted
27 Aug 2022
First published
30 Aug 2022

Dalton Trans., 2022,51, 14526-14534

Improved H-adsorption ability of Cu in CuNi alloy nanodots toward the efficient photocatalytic H2-evolution activity of TiO2

M. Wang, P. Wang, H. Long, X. Wang, F. Chen and H. Yu, Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 14526 DOI: 10.1039/D2DT02543D

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