Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Activity by Accelerating Water Dissociation Over Rh/Zn(Oh) 2 Catalyst in Alkaline Solution

Enhancing the kinetics of water dissociation in alkaline solution is pivotal to high performance of photocatalytic water splitting, there have been alternative materials promoting this sluggish process, such as Ni(OH)2, Co(OH)2, Fe(OH)2, etc. In present work, we report a Rh/Zn(OH)2 catalyst, prepared by an in-situ photodeposition strategy, that can boost the photocatalytic HER performance in the mild alkaline solution. In contrast to Rh NPs catalyst, its H2 evolution rate was about 3 times higher, as high as 60.9 mmol·g-1·h-1 was achieved with a maximum apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of 79.5% at 430 nm. In-depth characterization manifests that the excellent photocatalytic performance was not only attributed to the strong interaction between Rh NPs and Zn(OH)2 and the 3D network structure of amorphous Zn(OH)2 for EY molecules adsorption, which could ensure the rapid transfer of photogenerated carrier pairs, but also attributed to the accelerated kinetics of water dissociation over Rh/Zn(OH)2 catalyst in the mild alkaline solution. Our work will expand the candidate materials to design high-performance catalyst for photocatalytic H2 evolution in alkaline solution.