Study on hydrogen evolution of heterojunction formed by MoO3/Ni-MOF metal-organic framework composite

In this paper, a Z-scheme heterojunction is constructed by the synthesis of MoO3/Ni-MOF (MNM(x),x = 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%) composite materials to effectively improve its photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency. Among them, MNM(30) composite materials have the best performance, with a hydrogen production of 7.90 mmol within 1 h, which has a significant improve for MoO3. The X-Ray Diffraction(XRD), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), X-Rayr Photoelectron Spectroscopy(XPS), Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) of MoO3, Ni-MOF, and MNM(x) were analyzed to determine composition and morphology. The photoresponse and electron mobility of the them were analyzed though UV-Visible Spectrophotometer(UV–vis), Photoluminescence(PL) and Photoelectrochemical tests. The construction of Z-scheme heterojunctions has achieved the separation of photo-generated electrons and holes, leading to a significant improvement in photocatalytic efficiency. The introduction of Ni-MOF compensates for the problem of excessive bandgap in MoO3, which improves the absorption efficiency of visible light and stability of photocatalytic materials. This study provides a new pathway for photocatalytic hydrogen production in Mo-based materials by constructing heterojunctions and introducing MOF materials.