Recent progresses in photocatalytic hydrogen production: design and construction of Ni‐based cocatalysts

Abstract

Up to now, much effort has focused on developing the highly efficiency composite photocatalysts by introducing cocatalysts in the photocatalytic hydrogen production reaction, because the proper cocatalysts can reduce activation energy, provide active sites, and suppress the reverse reaction. The transition metal nickel and its compounds acting as cocatalyst have received intensive attention because of their structural stability, facile preparation, and high performance in hydrogen evolution reaction, and are expected to replace the function of noble metals. This review emphasizes on the latest progresses that design and construction of composite photocatalyst using Ni-based cocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen production, such as metal nickel, nickel sulfide, and nickel phosphide, will be presented. Then, some preparation strategies and influence factors of Ni-based cocatalysts on enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production are elucidated in detail. Finally, some challenge and perspective on the highly active cocatalysts in the area of photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting are also given.