ZIF-67-derived Co-N-C with lower graphitization as heat-core material for boosted photothermal-assisted photocatalytic H2 evolution

Carbon-based materials have attracted considerable attention in the field of photothermal catalysis owing to their exceptional chemical stability, wide-range light harvesting and high photothermal conversion efficiency. In this work, ZIF-67 was pyrolyzed at different temperatures to produce Co-N-C materials with varying graphitization degrees, revealing that lower graphitization leads to superior photothermal performance. Herein, they are employed as heat-core material and integrated with ZnIn 2 S 4 (ZIS) to form composites via a water-bath method for photothermally promoted photocatalytic H 2 production. Experimental resutls reveals that the low-graphitized Co-N-C features abundant structural defects to construct highly active surface sites and exhibits a strong localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect that efficiently converts photons into phonons, thereby elevating the local surface temperature of the catalyst. Meanwhile, the interfacial interaction formed between the low-graphitized Co-N-C and ZIS in Co-N-C@ZIS composite effectively promotes the separation and migration of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, thereby enhancing the performance of the photothermal-assisted photocatalytic H 2 generation with achieving an H 2 generation rate of 14.09 mmol g −1  h −1 under full-spectrum illumination, 12.04-fold higher than pure ZIS (1.17 mmol g −1  h −1 ). The work provides valuable insights and strategies for significantly enhancing photothermally promoted photocatalytic hydrogen evolution through the utilization of carbon-based heat-core materials.