Boosting visible light driven hydrogen production: Bifunctional interface of Ni(OH)2/Pt cocatalyst on TiO2

Sunlight driven hydrogen production by water splitting represents a sustainable approach for hydrogen energy utilization, however, solo semiconductor could not meet the current demand. Herein, as proof of concept, we put forward a bifunctional interface of Ni(OH)2/Pt cocatalyst loaded on anatase TiO2 through a selective deposition process. Ni(OH)2/Pt interface facilitates H2O adsorption by providing two adsorption sites: O is selectively adsorbed on Ni(OH)2 and H adsorbed on metallic Pt. Beyond that, Ni(OH)2/Pt interface also extends light absorption range of TiO2 to visible light region and accelerates the separation of photo-generated electrons/holes for semiconductor TiO2. Benefiting from this interfacial engineering in semiconductor, the visible-light driven hydrogen production performance of the as-obtained Ni(OH)2/Pt/TiO2 sample is greatly boosted with a rate of 5875 μmol g−1 h−1, 2.6 times higher than that of Pt/TiO2.