An Efficient and Extremely Stable Photocatalytic PtSe2/FTO Thin Film for Water Splitting

Abstract

Promising photocatalytic films are more viable for practical solar‐driven hydrogen (H2) evolution, which remains scarcely explored so far. Herein, a series of PtSe2 thin films are synthesized through thermal evaporation of Pt onto commercial fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates, followed by direct selenization through chemical vapor deposition (CVD). It is found that the optimized PtSe2/FTO film exhibits an outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) rate of 506 mmol h−1 m−2, which is far higher than that of blank FTO and PtSe2/Si films, and even sevenfold higher than that of the Pt/FTO film (68 mmol h−1 m−2). Surprisingly, the HER activity of the PtSe2/FTO film has no decay after 15 recycling runs, aging for 1 year, and an additional eight recycling runs. The excellent HER activity and ultrastability of the PtSe2/FTO film is further investigated by electronic/spectroscopic characterizations. All results show that the PtSe2/FTO film has the potential to be a viable photocatalyst for solar‐driven H2 production.