The charge-carrier separation efficiency is one of the
important
factors for a high photocatalytic performance. Herein, a nickel phosphide
(Ni2P) cocatalyst chemically bonded to black phosphorus
(BP) nanosheets (0D/2D Ni2P/BP) has been synthesized by
a facile one-step solvothermal process, using the commercial red phosphorus
(RP) as a precursor material. RP is used not only to synthesize BP
but also to form in situ Ni2P as a cocatalyst for the host
BP photocatalyst. The in situ grown Ni2P on BP nanosheets
leads to the creation of a Ni–P covalent bond, which enhances
the charge separation as well as material stability. Thus, the developed
nanocomposite was found to be efficient toward photocatalytic H2 production at a rate of 406.08 μmol·g–1·h–1 under sunlight with high apparent quantum
yields of around 48.45 and 7.90% at 360 and 400 nm, respectively.
Notably, the Ni2P/BP composite is found to be more efficient
compared to the Pt/BP composite. As confirmed by the comparative study
between the chemically and physically loaded Ni2P nanocomposites,
the Ni–P bonds enhance the interfacial charge-carrier separation
at the interface of BP and Ni2P, which ultimately increase
the lifetime of the photogenerated electrons and improve the photocatalytic
performance. The obtained results demonstrate that the established
in situ one-step solvothermal synthesis strategy can be viable for
the scalable synthesis of the developed materials for the large-scale
H2 production under solar light.