Assembly mechanism and photoproduced electron transfer for a novel cubic Cu2O/tetrakis(4-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin hybrid with visible photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution

A novel composite with special structure and excellent performance, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4hydroxyphenyl) porphyrin (THPP) coated Cu2O nanoparticle (Cu2O/THPP), was facilely prepared by a simple method. UV-vis spectra, FTIR and fluorescence spectra were used to explore the interaction mechanism between THPP molecule and Cu2O nanoparticle. The results demonstrated that the center of the THPP macrocycle could coordinate with Cu2O, besides hydrogen bond and/or electrostatic interaction between peripheries of THPP macrocycle and Cu2O. Furthermore, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of the composite was investigated. The composite displayed more excellent performance for hydrogen evolution than that of pure THPP, pure Cu2O or 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) coated Cu2O nanoparticle (Cu2O/TPP). By means of fluorescence spectra, electrochemical impedance spectra and photoelectronic performance measurement, the mechanism of electron transfer in the composite was explored. The results showed that the strong synergetic interaction caused by the special combination mode between THPP and Cu2O can quicken the transfer of photo-generated electrons, and was very favorable to improve the performance of the Cu2O/THPP composite. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.