Photocatalytic Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid on CdS Nanorods through Ni and Co Redox Mediation under Mild Conditions.

Nasir, Jamal Abdul; Hafeez, Muhammad; Arshad, Muhammad; Ali, Naveed Zafar; Teixeira, Ivo F.; McPherson, Ian; Zia‐ur‐Rehman; Khan, M. Abdullah

Abstract: Selective release of hydrogen from formic acid (FA) is deemed feasible to solve issues associated with the production and storage of hydrogen. Here, we present a new efficient photocatalytic system consisting of CdS nanorods (NRs), Ni, and Co to liberate hydrogen from FA. The optimized noble‐metal‐free catalytic system employs Ni/Co as a redox mediator to relay electrons and holes from CdS NRs to the Ni and Co, respectively, which also deters the oxidation of CdS NRs. As a result, a high hydrogen production activity of 32.6 mmol h−1 g−1 from the decomposition of FA was noted. Furthermore, the photocatalytic system exhibits sustained H2 production rate for 12 h with sequential turnover numbers surpassing 4×103, 3×103, and 2×103 for Co–Ni/CdS NRs, Ni/CdS NRs, and CoCl2/CdS NRs, respectively.

DEHYDROGENATION; FORMIC acid; CADMIUM sulfide; NANORODS; OXIDATION-reduction reaction; COBALT; NITROGEN

ChemSusChem, 2018, Vol 11, Issue 15, p2587

1864-5631

Academic Journal

10.1002/cssc.201800583