In situ photo-deposition of amorphous nickel boride nanocluster onto graphitic carbon nitride for significantly promoting light-driven hydrogen evolution

The noble metal co-catalyst has demonstrated great advantages in promoting the photogenerated carrier separation and hydrogen production process of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄). However, the development of suitable non-noble metal-based co-catalyst with high cost-effectiveness and facile synthesis strategy still remains a challenge. In this work, a novel g-C₃N₄ nanosheets modified with amorphous NiB nanocluste (CN/NiB) is successfully synthesized via a simple in-situ photo-deposition method. The optimal performance of CN/NiB-8 shows a greatly enhanced photocatalytic H₂ evolution rate of 3025 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, which is 104 times higher than the pure g-C₃N₄. The results demonstrate that a strong interaction of C–Ni and N–Ni can be formed, the highly dispersed amorphous NiB can act as an effective co-catalyst that promotes the separation of photoinduced hole-electron pairs during the photocatalytic process attributed to its powerful trapping electrons ability and thus enhances the H₂ generation during photocatalytic performance. This work offers a potential strategy for in situ constructing photocatalysts with non-noble metal co-catalyst to enhance the visible-light driven photocatalysis and to reduce the costs for production.