Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over a nickel complex anchoring to thiophene embedded g-C3N4

Abstract Evolution of hydrogen from water by utilizing solar energy and photocatalysts is one of the most promising ways to solve energy crisis. However, designing a cost-effective and stable photocatalyst without any noble metals is of vital importance for this process. Herein, an extremely active molecular complex cocatalyst NiL2(Cl)2 is successfully designed. After being covalently linked to thiophene-embedded polymeric carbon nitride (TPCN), the hybrid catalyst NiL2(Cl)2/TPCN exhibits extraordinary H2 production activity of 95.8 μmol h−1 without Pt (λ ≥ 420 nm), together with a remarkable apparent quantum yield of 6.68% at 450 nm. In such a composite catalyst, the embedded π-electron-rich thiophene-ring not only extends the π-conjugated system to enhance visible light absorption, but also promotes the charge separation through electron-withdrawing effect. It turns out that the C N covalent bonds formed between NiL2(Cl)2 and TPCN skeleton accelerate the transfer of electrons to the Ni active sites. Our finding reveals that the strategy of embedding π-electron-rich compounds to graphitic carbon nitride provides potentials to develop excellent photocatalysts. The strong covalent combination of molecular complexes cocatalyst onto organic semiconductors represents an important step towards designing noble-metal-free photocatalysts with superior activity and high stability for visible light driven hydrogen evolution.