Abstract
A Cu-PP hydrogel with 3D network was synthesized using a simple in-situ polymerization method. PA (phytic acid) acts as the dopants and crosslinking agent to form PANI-PA (polyaniline-phytic acid) hydrogel via in-situ polymerization of aniline. PA is also used as a chelating agent to coordinate with Cu2+ ion due to the high coordination capacity. When irradiated by light, Cu2+ was slowly reduced to form Cu NPs, distributing uniformly in the 3D matrix of PANI-PA. The 3D network nanostructure ensures a complete contact between the photocatalyst and water, promoting the separation of electrons and holes. The introduction of PANI-PA improves the separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs, where PANI-PA acts as a hole reservoir to trap the holes generated by Cu NPs, hindering the recombination of electron-hole pairs. The Cu0.2-PP hydrogel with a copper content of 30.8% exhibits the best hydrogen production rate (6.09 mmol·g−1·h−1), which is 6.7 times greater than that of pure Cu NPs.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2019A1515011368), the PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030310362), and the support of International Clean Energy Talent Program by China Scholarship Council (201904100037).
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Pan, X., Wu, S., Wang, T. et al. Copper containing 3D polyaniline/phytic acid hydrogels for photocatalytic hydrogen production. J Mater Sci 57, 12836–12847 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07424-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07424-0