Electronic tuning of platinum cocatalysts over g-C3N4 nanosheets through the linker engineering for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

The strong metal-support interactions (SMSI) can profoundly affect the electronic state of platinum (Pt) cocatalysts, which plays a dominant role for photocatalytic activity in the supported photocatalysts. However, the conventional Pt/g-C3N4 photocatalysts usually shows negligible SMSI effect because of the lack of the reducible species. Herein, we demonstrate that the linker engineering of UiO66-type MOFs can effectively strengthen the SMSI and optimize the electron density of Pt nanoparticles on g-C3N4 nanosheets. The enhancement of electron-donating ability of the ligand functional groups effectively enriches the electron density of Pt cocatalysts, thus accelerating the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate. The results show that CN@Pt@UiO66-NA (the electron-donating functional group modified) exhibits the excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity (4.22 mmol g−1 h−1), which is 2.7 times that of CN@Pt@UiO66-NO2 (the electron-withdrawing functional group modified). © 2024 Elsevier Ltd