Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Iron Platinum Loaded Reduced Graphene Oxide

The production of hydrogen (as a clean energy carrier that could replace fossil fuels) nowadays attracts much attention because of environmental pollution and energy demands1–3. Recently, hydrogen evolution technologies, such as production by steam reforming4, electrolysis5, degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater6, and photoelectrochemical splitting of water7 have been investigated. Among all the methods, photocatalytic hydrogen generation processes8–10 on nanomaterials have gained considerable attention because of their ability to provide a clean and renewable energy source. Photocatalytic splitting of water promises to be a cleaner and greener route towards generation of hydrogen. A key challenge for water splitting is the development of catalysts for the direct and efficient production of hydrogen from protons. Up to now, numerous metal-based photocatalysts have been discovered as catalysts for this reaction11,12, but they are ultimately of low efficiency, high cost, and low abundance13,14. Several strategies have been employed to improve the photocatalytic performance of metallic photocatalysts, for example, textural design15,16, coupling with other metal photocatalysts17,18, etc. In particular, great interest has been devoted to linking carbon nanomaterials19. Conjugated carbon materials, such as fullerenes, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and graphite are excellent candidates for refining the transport of photocarriers during photocatalysis through the formation of electronic interactions with photocatalyst nanoparticles. Among carbon-based materials, graphene has been reported as an efficient co-catalyst for photocatalytic H2 production because of its high specific surface area (theoretical value 2600 m2 g–1), excellent electron mobility (15000 m2 V–1 s–1 at room temperature), thermal conductivity, and high mechanical strength20–22. In recent years, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been modified with different nanoparticles, such as ZnO23, TiO2 24 and CdS25. They have been used as photocatalysts under visible-light irradiation. Previously, a few shape-controlled Pt alloy nanocrystals, such as Pt-Fe and Pt-Co26, have been made using diols and other reducing agents. To the best of our knowledge, metals like Pt and Fe play a significant role in the hydrogen evolution process, especially when they are combined with carbon-based composites27–30. Herein, we have attempted to introduce the grapheme-based composite as a novel class of photocatalysts for enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. In this work, we have synthesized platinum-iron NPs loaded reduced graphene oxide using Pt(acac)2 and Fe(acac)3 as metal nanoparticle sources. We have also examined the photocatalytic activity of FePt-rGO and FePt nanomaterials for the water splitting reaction to produce hydrogen in the presence of methanol as a sacrificial agent. Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Iron Platinum Loaded Reduced Graphene Oxide