Enhancing the piezocatalytic performance for H2 evolution by constructing BiOCl/UiO-66 heterostructure

Abstract

Developing highly efficient piezocatalytic system for hydrogen production is crucial in addressing the current energy crisis. Herein, we synthesized BiOCl/UiO-66 heterostructure piezocatalyst using facile one-step solvothermal method and evaluated its performance for piezocatalytic H2 evolution under ultrasonic vibration. Our findings reveal that BiOCl/UiO-66 heterostructure demonstrates excellent catalytic activity, yielding high piezocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 650.9 μmol g−1 h−1, significantly surpassing that of pure BiOCl (176.5 μmol g−1 h−1) and UiO-66 (352.6 μmol g−1 h−1). Furthermore, the BiOCl/UiO-66 presents good stability throughout cyclic experiments. The improved catalytic performance of BiOCl/UiO-66 is mainly attributed to the formation of heterostructure, which can induce more active sites and the strong piezoelectric field that aids in charge carriers separation. A possible mechanism of BiOCl/UiO-66 heterostructure is proposed. This work offers practical approach to boost the hydrogen production efficiency of Bi-based piezocatalyst.