Partial phosphating of Ni-MOFs and Cu2S snowflakes form 2D/2D structure for efficiently improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

2D Cu 2 S snowflakes and 2D Ni-MOFs flakes were synthesized by hydrothermal method , and Ni-MOFs were calcined with sodium hypophosphite at 200 °C to form Ni-MOFs-P (Ni-MOFs/Ni 2 P). In the physical mixing process, since the -formation temperature of Cu 2 S is at 80 °C, the physical mixing temperature was controlled at 80 °C, which is advantageous for achieving a close 2D/2D contact. The results showed that 15 vol% TEOA with pH = 10 was used as sacrificent reagent under 5 W LED simulated visible light. 20 mg of EY was used as a photosensitizer . CNP60 had the best hydrogen evolution performance within 5 h, which was 3122.76 μmol g −1  h −1 . The hydrogen evolution rate of CNP60 is 8.72 fold, 3.37 fold, and 91.85 fold faster than that of Ni-MOFs, Ni-MOFs-P, and Cu 2 S, respectively. Ni-MOFs phosphating and Cu 2 S loading can reduce the photocatalyst's photogenerated electron and hole recombination efficiency. This significant improvement was achieved through XRD, SEM, TEM , XPS , UTV-Visible DRS , transient photocurrent , steady-state fluorescence, short fluorescence, related substance reporting studies, radical hydroxyl trapping, and more. The results show that the 2D/2D assembled CNP can effectively enhance the ability to reduce H∗, and a possible photocatalytic hydrogen production mechanism is proposed.