Efficient Visible-Light Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution over the In2O3@Ni2P Heterojunction of an In-Based Metal-Organic Framework

Although the engineering of visible-light-driven photocatalystswith appropriate bandgap structures is beneficial for generating hydrogen(H-2), the construction of heterojunctions and energy bandmatching are extremely challenging. In this study, In2O3@Ni2P (IO@NP) heterojunctions are attained by annealingMIL-68(In) and combining the resulting material with NP via a simplehydrothermal method. Visible-light photocatalysis experiments validatethat the optimized IO@NP heterojunction exhibits a dramatically improvedH(2) release rate of 2485.5 & mu;mol g(-1) h(-1) of 92.4 times higher than that of IO. Opticalcharacterization reveals that the doping of IO with an NP componentpromotes the rapid separation of photo-induced carriers and enablesthe capture of visible light. Moreover, the interfacial effects ofthe IO@NP heterojunction and synergistic interaction between IO andNP that arises through their close contact mean that plentiful activecenters are available to reactants. Notably, eosin Y (EY) acts asa sacrificial photosensitizer and has a significant effect on therate of H-2 generation under visible light irradiation,which is an aspect that needs further improvement. Overall, this studydescribes a feasible approach for synthesizing promising IO-basedheterojunctions for use in practical photocatalysis.