Enhanced Metal-Support Inteaction in Ni/Biomass-Derived Carbon Catalyst via AtomicNi-N₄ Sites for Boosting Dye-Sensitized Photocatalytic H₂ Production

It is of great significance to prepare carbon supported non-noble metal catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via a sustainable method. Meanwhile, the enhanced metal-support interaction (MSI) is vital for promoting the catalytic activity of metal/carbon catalysts. Herein, we prepare biomass-derived porous carbon supported metal Ni catalyst (Ni/APC) with the enhanced MSI via atomic Ni-N4 sites utilizing agaric as a precursor. The highly dispersed Ni-N4 species preferentially adsorb dye molecules and reactant H2O, beneficial to efficient electron transfer and promoting H2O dissociation. Meanwhile, Ni nanoparticles undertake the active sites for H2 desorption. In virtue of the synergistic effect of metal Ni nanoparticles and atomic Ni-N4 for different roles of active sites, Ni/APC catalysts show more effective dye-sensitized photocatalytic HER activities, compared with pure Ni and pure APC. The Ni/APC catalyst with an optimal Ni loading amount exhibits a high AQY of 41.0 % with an excellent long-term stability in terms of both HER activity and structure. It is the first report of an application for biomass-derived carbon catalysts in dye-sensitization hydrogen production, and the synergistic effect of atomic Ni and particled Ni on the dye-sensitized photocatalytic HER is deeply investigated. This work provides new deep insight into the design of new non-noble metal/carbon materials by taking advantages of biomass materials.