Atomically precise Ni6(SC2H4Ph)12 nanoclusters on graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Much effort has been devoted to improving the photocatalytic capacity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ). In this paper, we reported the successful synthesis of a hybrid photocatalyst with superb photocatalytic hydrogen production activity through decorating atomically precise Ni 6 (SC 2 H 4 Ph) 12 nanoclusters on g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets (labeled as Ni 6 /g-C 3 N 4 ) at room temperature. Zeta potential experiments demonstrated that the electrostatic interaction between Ni 6 and g-C 3 N 4 led to the formation of Ni 6 /g-C 3 N 4 . The photocatalytic measurements revealed that the 5 %-Ni 6 /g-C 3 N 4 prepared with the original mass ratio of m(Ni 6 )/m(g-C 3 N 4 ) = 1/20 exhibited the strongest hydrogen production activity. In the system with triethanolamine (TEOA) as the sacrifice agent, the visible-light hydrogen production rate reached up to 5.87 mmol h −1 g −1 , approximately 290 times higher than that of pure g-C 3 N 4 (0.02 mmol h −1 g −1 ). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations testified that the above significant enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of the hybrid photocatalyst arose from the photogenerated electrons transfer from Ni 6 to g-C 3 N 4 .