Nanoparticle metal Ni cocatalyst on NiTe_2 microsphere for improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

摘要

Scalable and sustainable photocatalytic hydrogen evolution via water splitting requires highly active, stable and earth-abundant cocatalysts to replace rare and expensive metal Platinum. Herein, two facile and similar thermal injection methods are employed to synthesize 3D NiTe2 microsphere and OD/3D Ni/NiTe2 Schottky heterojunction photocatalyst. The optimized 6% Ni/NiTe2 composite shows good H-2 evolution activity with a rate of 2214.2 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) about 1.55 times higher than that of single NiTe2. Especially, it is the first time to report that NiTe2 and Ni/NiTe2 composite have the activity of producing H2O2 through the two-electron reduction of O-2 during photocatalytic water splitting. This enhanced photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the rapid separation and migration of photogenerated charge carriers, low interfacial resistance, abundant surface active sites and two-electron reduction reaction process. This work provides an innovative approach for designing and constructing the potential metal-semiconductor composites with unique electronic structures. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.