Novel NiO/RP composite with remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution from water

Abstract The low photocatalytic activity of red phosphorus (RP) for H2 production seriously restricts its wide application. In this work, we reported a facile synthesis and remarkable activity improvement of NiO/RP composite for water splitting. As a result, the 3% NiO/RP composite exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for H2 production (57.27 μmol g−1 h−1), which is 68.56 times higher than that of pure RP (0.82 μmol g−1 h−1) under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm) irradiation. The investigation of photocarriers separation mechanism indicated NiO/RP composite applied a Z-scheme mechanism to promote the photocarriers separation. This is a potential strategy to dramatically enhance the photocatalytic activity of RP for H2 evolution using transition metal oxide to efficiently separate the photocarriers under light irradiation.