Acetylene functionalized covalent triazine frameworks with AuPd nanoparticles as photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution from formic acid

Abstract

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.