Atomically precise Ni(SCHPh) nanoclusters on graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Much effort has been devoted to improving the photocatalytic capacity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN). In this paper, we reported the successful synthesis of a hybrid photocatalyst with superb photocatalytic hydrogen production activity through decorating atomically precise Ni(SCHPh) nanoclusters on g-CN nanosheets (labeled as Ni/g-CN) at room temperature. Zeta potential experiments demonstrated that the electrostatic interaction between Ni and g-CN led to the formation of Ni/g-CN. The photocatalytic measurements revealed that the 5 %-Ni/g-CN prepared with the original mass ratio of m(Ni)/m(g-CN) = 1/20 exhibited the strongest hydrogen production activity. In the system with triethanolamine (TEOA) as the sacrifice agent, the visible-light hydrogen production rate reached up to 5.87 mmol h g, approximately 290 times higher than that of pure g-CN (0.02 mmol h g). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations testified that the above significant enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of the hybrid photocatalyst arose from the photogenerated electrons transfer from Ni to g-CN.