Pt nanoclusters as co-catalysts for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production is an ideal strategy to relieve the energy crisis. In this work, Pt nanoclusters are employed as a co-catalyst to modify g-C₃N₄ for optimizing the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. Compared with the pristine g-C₃N₄, the Pt nanoclusterss/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposites exhibit dramatic enhancement toward H₂ production, where the H₂ evolution rate of CN-Pt-C2 is nearly 425.1 times higher than pristine g-C₃N₄. The phase structure, morphology, optical properties, and surface chemical states of the fabricated samples are fully investigated. Based on the systematical characterizations, the reason for the enhanced H₂ generation performance is disclosed. It is expected this work can provide a valuable reference for the fabrication of a co-catalyst-based photocatalytic system.