A Strategy to Boost H Generation Ability of Metal-Organic Frameworks: Inside-Outside Decoration for the Separation of Electrons and Holes.

Inhibiting the recombination of electron and holes plays an essential role in photocatalytic process, particularly for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which had long been anticipated as high-efficient photocatalysts. Herein, we introduce a new strategy to make efficient separation of electrons and holes for the MOF-based photocatalyst, UiO-66-NH . At first, encapsulation of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) into UiO-66-NH (Pt@U6N) to shorten the electrons transport distance inside of MOF crystals, then using graphene oxide to wrap the external surface of Pt@U6N to facilitate the electrons transfer on the surface. The designed structure was found to possess superior H -generation ability compared to only inside or outside decorated samples, highlighting that the enhanced property strongly correlates with the inhibited recombination of electrons and holes by the inside/outside modification strategy. These findings suggest a synergistic effect of Pt NPs and graphene oxide on UiO-66-NH and reveal a new modification strategy to enhance the catalytic activity of the photocatalysts.