V-doped Ni2P nanoparticle grafted g-C3N4 nanosheets for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance under visible light

Exploring low-cost and highly active photocatalysts with noble metal-free cocatalysts is of great significance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under simulated sunlight irradiation. In this work, a novel V-doped Ni2P nanoparticle loaded g-C3N4 nanosheet is reported as a highly efficient photocatalyst for H2 evolution under visible light irradiation. The results demonstrate that the optimized 7.8 wt% V-Ni2P/g-C3N4 photocatalyst exhibits a high hydrogen evolution rate of 271.5 μmol g−1 h−1, which is comparable to that of the 1 wt% Pt/g-C3N4 photocatalyst (279 μmol g−1 h−1), and shows favorable hydrogen evolution stability for five successive runs within 20 h. The remarkable photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of V-Ni2P/g-C3N4 is mainly due to the enhanced visible light absorption ability, the facilitated separation of photo-generated electron–hole pairs, the prolonged lifetime of photo-generated carriers and the fast transmission ability of electrons.