Carbon Nitride Loaded with an Ultrafine,Monodisperse, Metallic Platinum-Cluster Cocatalyst for the Photocatalytic Hydrogen-Evolution Reaction |
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| Authors: | Daichi Yazaki Tokuhisa Kawawaki Daisuke Hirayama Masanobu Kawachi Kosaku Kato Sota Oguchi Yuichi Yamaguchi Soichi Kikkawa Yoshiya Ueki Sakiat Hossain D. J. Osborn Fumihiko Ozaki Shunsuke Tanaka Jun Yoshinobu Gregory F. Metha Seiji Yamazoe Akihiko Kudo Akira Yamakata Yuichi Negishi |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, 1–3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601 Japan;2. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530 Japan;3. Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192−0397 Japan;4. Research Institute for Science & Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba, 278-8510 Japan;5. Department of Chemistry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005 Australia;6. The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8581 Japan |
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| Abstract: | For the realization of a next-generation energy society, further improvement in the activity of water-splitting photocatalysts is essential. Platinum (Pt) is predicted to be the most effective cocatalyst for hydrogen evolution from water. However, when the number of active sites is increased by decreasing the particle size, the Pt cocatalyst is easily oxidized and thereby loses its activity. In this study, a method to load ultrafine, monodisperse, metallic Pt nanoclusters (NCs) on graphitic carbon nitride is developed, which is a promising visible-light-driven photocatalyst. In this photocatalyst, a part of the surface of the Pt NCs is protected by sulfur atoms, preventing oxidation. Consequently, the hydrogen-evolution activity per loading weight of Pt cocatalyst is significantly improved, 53 times, compared with that of a Pt-cocatalyst loaded photocatalyst by the conventional method. The developed method is also effective to enhance the overall water-splitting activity of other advanced photocatalysts such as SrTiO3 and BaLa4Ti4O15. |
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| Keywords: | cocatalysts hydrogen evolution metal clusters photocatalysis platinum |
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