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Coupling Photothermal Effect into Efficient Photocatalytic H 2 Production by Using a Plate‐like Cu@Ni Core‐shell Cocatalyst
Author(s) -
Guo Xinyang,
Xue Fei,
Xu Shikai,
Shen Shaohua,
Huang Hongwen,
Liu Maochang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.202000258
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , photothermal therapy , materials science , nanoparticle , photothermal effect , photoelectric effect , hydrogen production , metal , photochemistry , chemical engineering , hydrogen , noble metal , water splitting , nanotechnology , catalysis , chemistry , optoelectronics , metallurgy , biochemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
The general moderate reaction condition in solar photocatalytic hydrogen production (i. e., near ambient pressure, room temperature) makes interfacial mass and energy transfer extremely slow, even by employing a cocatalytic material (usually in the form of noble metal nanoparticles or their counterparts). Herein, by fabricating well‐defined Cu@Ni core‐shell nanoplate cocatalyst and further incorporating it with a g‐C 3 N 4 photocatalyst, we demonstrate that interfacial processes could be significantly improved by coupling localized photothermal effect into a cocatalyst. Specifically, Cu nanoplate can induce localized strong hot spots on Ni nanoparticles via a visible‐light‐driven surface plasma resonance effect. As a result, photogenerated electrons transferred from g‐C 3 N 4 to Ni, could be elevated to a more energetic state, leading to a substantially improved photocatalytic activity toward H 2 evolution from water. The highest hydrogen generation rate reaches 55 μmol h −1 g −1 , 110 times of that pristine g‐C 3 N 4 . This work indicates that photoelectric and photothermal effects can be effectively coupled by integrating metal hetero‐nanoparticles.