Photocatalytic Production of Hydrogen with Earth‐Abundant Metal Catalysts

Abstract

Abstract Photocatalytic production of hydrogen occurs by combination of model compounds of the photosynthetic reaction center with organic photocatalysts and earth‐abundant metal nanoparticles as proton reduction catalysts and with visible light irradiation of an acetonitrile–water mixture solvent containing a sacrificial electron donor. Mesoporous silica–alumina was utilized to incorporate organic photocatalysts and earth‐abundant metal nanoparticles together as composite catalysts in an aqueous solution. Earth‐abundant metal nanoparticles were produced in situ by the photoreduction of metal salts with oxalate anion in mesoporous silica–alumina. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) was enhanced by a synergistic effect of Ni and Cu supported on TiO 2 and SiO 2 . Such a synergistic effect among base metals and metal oxides provides a promising strategy to develop active catalysts for hydrogen evolution without using platinum group metals.