Ni nano-micro structures have been synthesized via a solution reduction route in the presence of ethylenediamine (EDA) under strong alkaline conditions. The phase composition, morphology, and microstructure of the resulting products are investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The presence of EDA plays an important role in the formation of Ni nano-micro structures, and microflowers or microspheres assembled from nanosized horns can be produced by changing the amount of EDA. The size of Ni nano-micro structures is dependent on the NaOH concentration, and long chains assembled from Ni nano-micro structured microspheres can be obtained by reducing the amount of NaOH solution used. The role of both EDA and NaOH in the reduction of Ni (II) to Ni, as well as in the growth of Ni nano-micro structures, has been discussed, and a possible formation mechanism of these Ni nano-micro structures has been proposed based on the experimental results.
Photocatalytic dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA) at room temperature is a promising way to meet the increasing demand for hydrogen energy. In this work, we loaded nanoparticles of plasmonic AuPd alloys on the acetylene functionalized covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) for the design of Mott-Schottky catalysts (AuPd/CTFs) with further application to photocatalytic hydrogen production from FA. Experimental data showed that the introduction of acetylene (-C≡C-) unit and AuPd alloy into the CTF could significantly enhance the performance of hydrogen evolution. The results of photoelectrochemical tests showed that the introduction of carbon-carbon triple bonds and AuPd alloy could adjust the electronic structure of CTF and inhibit charge recombination. Thus, benefiting from these positive effects, the FA photocatalytic decomposition by the obtained AuPd-CTF-EDDBN photocatalyst yielded H2 at a good rate of 10600 μmol·gcat
−1·h−1.
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