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Au NPs-incorporated NiS/RGO hybrid composites for efficient visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

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Abstract

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through electrocatalytic water splitting is regarded as a promising route to produce hydrogen in a large scale. Designing a low-cost, large-scale, and highly active electrolytic hydrogen production catalyst is still a huge challenge. Incorporation of high-loading redox-active materials with small amounts of graphene is a general protocol to achieve high-performance catalysts. Herein, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and Au NPs cocatalysts-modified NiS hybrid composite photocatalysts were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). XRD results suggest the NiS with rhombohedral phase (# JCPDS No. 65-2117). Both SEM and TEM results reveal that Au with NiS sample has clear spherical-shaped nanoparticles sizes in the range of 30–40 nm are coated on the rGO nanosheets. The estimated optical band gap energy is in the order of Au NPs/NiS@rGO (2.36 eV) < Nis@rGO (2.67 eV) < pure NiS (2.91 eV). The surface areas of NiS, NiS@rGO, and Au-NiS@rGO were calculated to be 64.58, 87.6, and 106.35 m2g−1, respectively. The Au-NiS@rGO exhibits significantly enhanced catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in both the acid and alkaline electrolytes in comparison with the pristine NiS. The Au-NiS@rGO delivers a striking catalytic kinetic metrics of a small Tafel slope of 54 mV dec−1, a low overpotential of 252 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, and long operation stability of 4 day in the acid electrolyte. The improved HER activity of the Au-NiS@rGO hybrid composite catalyst is attributed to the synergistic effect of the surface plasmon resonance of Au NPs and enhanced electron transfer on RGO. This work could offer a facile and low-cost strategy for the construction of composite photocatalysts with high-efficiency hydrogen generation activity.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Kandaswami Kandar’s College, P. Velur, Namakkal, Tamilnadu, 638182, India

    P. Senthil & A. Sankar

  2. Department of Chemistry, Arumugam Pillai Seethai Ammal College, Thiruppathur, Sivagangai, Tamilnadu, 630211, India

    K. Paramasivaganesh

  3. Department of Chemistry, Karuppannan Mariappan College, Chettiarpalayam, Muthur, Tamilnadu, 638105, India

    S. P. Saravanan

  4. Department of Chemistry, Mahendra Institute of Technology, Mallasamudram (W), Namakkal, Tamilnadu, 637503, India

    P. Senthil

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PS and AS contributed toward study conceptualization and writing (original draft) the manuscript. KP and SPS, contributed toward data curation, formal analysis, and writing (review and editing).

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Correspondence to A. Sankar.

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Senthil, P., Sankar, A., Paramasivaganesh, K. et al. Au NPs-incorporated NiS/RGO hybrid composites for efficient visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11684-0

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