Metal-Organic-Frameworks-driven hollow core-shell C03O4/TiO2 Heterojunction for Enhancement of Photocatalytic Hydrogen generation

Abstract In recent years, how to further enhance the efficiency of photocatalytic hydrogen generation has become a research hotspot. At present, the metal-organic-frameworks (MOF) has attracted much attention in the field of catalysis due to its special physical and chemical properties. Herein, the hollow core-shell Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 heterojunction is prepared by deposition and annealing method with ZIF-67 as self-sacrificial templates and metal precurous. The characterzation of XRD, SEM, and TEM indicate that the hollow core-shell Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 heterojunction is synthesized successfully. The characterzation of UV, PL indicate that the Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 show superior photoelectric performance. By evaluation, the Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 heterogeneous catalyst exhibits a remarkable photocatalytic hydrogen production performance, which is ∼11 and ∼14 times higher than that of pure Co 3 O 4 and TiO 2 . Studies prove that the formation of heterojunction can promote charge carriers separation, the hollow structure can raise the solar efficiency, offer more surface areas and active sites, all these are beneficial for photocatalytic performance.