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Light-driven heterogeneous photocatalysis has gained great significance for generating solar fuel; the challenging charge separation process and sluggish surface catalytic reactions significantly restrict the progress of solar energy conversion using a semiconductor photocatalyst. Herein, we propose a novel and feasible strategy to incorporate dihydroxy benzene (DHB) as a conjugated monomer within the framework of urea containing CN (CNU-DHBx) to tune the electronic conductivity and charge separation due to the aromaticity of the benzene ring, which acts as an electron-donating species. Systematic characterizations such as SPV, PL, XPS, DRS, and TRPL demonstrated that the incorporation of the DHB monomer greatly enhanced the photocatalytic CO2 reduction of CN due to the enhanced charge separation and modulation of the ionic mobility. The significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity of CNU–DHB15.0 in comparison with parental CN was 85 µmol/h for CO and 19.92 µmol/h of the H2 source. It can be attributed to the electron–hole pair separation and enhance the optical adsorption due to the presence of DHB. Furthermore, this remarkable modification affected the chemical composition, bandgap, and surface area, encouraging the controlled detachment of light-produced photons and making it the ideal choice for CO2 photoreduction. Our research findings potentially offer a solution for tuning complex charge separation and catalytic reactions in photocatalysis that could practically lead to the generation of artificial photocatalysts for efficient solar energy into chemical energy conversion.

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Summary The hydrogen storage properties of zinc ferrite spinel (ZnFe2O4) alloy were studied, in this work. This alloy, formed applying the sol‐gel technique, was employed as anode in Ni‐MH accumulators. X‐ray diffractogram analysis showed the appearance of the compound spinel with cubic structure. In fact, the crystallite size, specified by the TEM technique, was equal to 30 nm. The hydrogen storage properties of zinc ferrite spinel alloy were examined applying various electromechanical methods (chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry, and chronoamperometry) at the C/10 rate and at room temperature. The maximum discharge capacity value was almost equal to 145 mAh/g. After 100 cycles, a good cycling stability was attained and correlation between the (DH/a2) ratio and the discharge capacity as noticed. The electrolyte/ZnFe2O4 anode interface prior to and following activation was studied utilizing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

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