Polyaniline encapsulated Ti-MOF/CoS for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

We report the study of conductive polyaniline (PANI) chain embedded Ti-MOF functionalized with CoS as a cocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) application. The post synthetically modified hybrid photocatalyst PANI/Ti-MOF/CoS greatly influences the redox and e− − h+ separation process and exhibits an impressive rate of HER (∼1322 μmol h−1g−1), suppressing the pristine Ti-MOF (∼62 μmol h−1g−1) with apparent quantum yield (AQY) of ∼3.2 and transient current response of ∼46.4 μA cm−2. In this system, Ti-MOF provides the circulation of Ti3+ and Ti4+ to the reaction of photocatalytic H2 generation, where the additional PANI and CoS amended the performance of H2 production through electron enrichment and thereby improving the stability and integrity of Ti-MOF. The Electrochemical studies demonstrated increased photocurrent by interweaving Ti-MOF crystal with PANI through cation-π interaction thereby enhancing interface connection and then promoting electron transfers. The charge dynamics revealed the initial charge transfer from photoexcited PANI to encapsulated MOF framework to boost the photocatalytic performance of the system. Further, the electron movement at the Ti-MOF/CoS interface is investigated through work function and electrochemical potential of electrons (Fermi level). DFT results demonstrate the importance of CoS in improving the photocatalytic performance of hybrid Ti-MOF catalyst, which leads to superior catalytic behaviour. These results establish that the encapsulation of catalytic active sites inside MOFs with desirable energy band gaps would be an ideal choice for the production of solar fuels.