Co Nanoparticles Decorated with Nitrogen Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Boosting Photocatalytic Water Splitting

Photocatalytic water splitting reaction has been deemed as a promising and sustainable method for solar-to-chemical energy conversion. Therefore, the development of cost-effective and visible-light-driven water splitting photo catalysts is highly desirable. Herein, the Co nanoparticles decorated with nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (Co-NCNT-T, T = pyrolysis temperature) were rationally designed by a simple pyrolysis process at different temperature using for boosting photocatalytic oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution. The results show that as-obtained Co-NCNT-800 exhibits a considerable hydrogen evolution rate of 14.7 mmol h(-1) g(-1) and oxygen yield of 51%. In addition, a turnover number (TON) of 25.8 and turnover frequency (TOF) of 0.86 s(-1) for water oxidation are attained under optimized conditions. The excellent activity is mainly ascribed to the effective electron transfer between the catalyst and photosensitizer, which is verified by photoluminescence (PL) spectra and transient photocurrent responses experiments. Overall, this work provides a novel strategy for expanding highly efficient water splitting catalysts.