Plasmon-enhanced hydrogen production from photocatalytic methanol aqueous-phase reforming over novel nickel-tin intermetallic compounds photocatalyst

Hydrogen production from the aqueous phase reforming (APR) of methanol is promising to reduce the global carbon dioxide emission, but it is still a great challenge for hydrogen production with high catalytic efficiency at low reaction temperature. Here we report that Al₂O₃ supported Ni₃Sn₁ intermetallic compounds nanoparticles as new class of plasmonic photocatalyst and enables low temperature (150–190 °C), efficient hydrogen production (277$\mu$$\mu$mol g⁻¹ min⁻¹) and low CO and CH₄ selectivity ($\le$$\le$ 0.1 %) through APR with the help of light irradiation. The hydrogen production rate of Ni₃Sn₁/Al₂O₃ is 8 times higher than that of conventional noble metal 3 wt% Pt/Al₂O₃ catalyst under the same optimized reaction conditions. The exceptional photocatalytic performance for hydrogen production can be attribute to higher efficiency of “hot electron” transference into the reactant due to the higher energy level of “hot electron” and the lower energy level of metal-reactant adsorption bond induced by Sn doping in Ni₃Sn₁ under light irradiation, which not only improve the reactivity via enhanced methanol dissociation and the sequential water–gas shift (WGS) reaction, but also suppressed catalyst poisoning via accelerated CO₂ desorption over the Ni sites.