No abstract

Although the engineering of visible-light-driven photocatalysts with appropriate bandgap structures is beneficial for generating hydrogen (H2), the construction of heterojunctions and energy band matching are extremely challenging. In this study, In2O3@Ni2P (IO@NP) heterojunctions are attained by annealing MIL-68­(In) and combining the resulting material with NP via a simple hydrothermal method. Visible-light photocatalysis experiments validate that the optimized IO@NP heterojunction exhibits a dramatically improved H2 release rate of 2485.5 μmol g–1 h–1 of 92.4 times higher than that of IO. Optical characterization reveals that the doping of IO with an NP component promotes the rapid separation of photo-induced carriers and enables the capture of visible light. Moreover, the interfacial effects of the IO@NP heterojunction and synergistic interaction between IO and NP that arises through their close contact mean that plentiful active centers are available to reactants. Notably, eosin Y (EY) acts as a sacrificial photosensitizer and has a significant effect on the rate of H2 generation under visible light irradiation, which is an aspect that needs further improvement. Overall, this study describes a feasible approach for synthesizing promising IO-based heterojunctions for use in practical photocatalysis.