Interfacial effect between Ni2P/CdS for simultaneously heightening photocatalytic hydrogen production and lignocellulosic biomass photorefining

Xi Cheng; Bo Liu; Heng Zhao; Hongguang Zhang; Jiu Wang; Zhangkang Li; Bei Li; Zhangxin Chen; Jinguang Hu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.031

Interfacial effect between Ni₂P/CdS for simultaneously heightening photocatalytic hydrogen production and lignocellulosic biomass photorefining

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Feb:655:943-952. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.031. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Authors

Xi Cheng¹, Bo Liu², Heng Zhao³, Hongguang Zhang¹, Jiu Wang¹, Zhangkang Li⁴, Bei Li⁵, Zhangxin Chen¹, Jinguang Hu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
³ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. Electronic address: heng.zhao1@ucalgary.ca.
⁴ Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address: libei@whut.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. Electronic address: jinguang.hu@ucalgary.ca.

PMID: 37949744
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.031

Abstract

Photorefining of biomass is increasingly recognized as a pivotal technology for the simultaneous production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals. The intrinsic recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass puts high demands on the rational design of bifunctional photocatalyst. Herein, Ni₂P/CdS with a strong interfacial effect in this work was designed to overcome lignocellulosic biomass photorefining. The strong interfacial effect between Ni₂P and CdS not only improved the light absorbance, but also optimized the spatial redistribution of photogenerated electrons and holes. Therefore, Ni₂P/CdS exhibited an unprecedented H₂ evolution activity (ca. 199.7 mmol·h^-1·g^-1) in the presence of lactic acid as the traditional sacrificial agent. Considerable H₂ generation was also achieved in the presence of lignin (ca. 322.8 μmol·h^-1·g^-1), cellulose (ca. 534.3 μmol·h^-1·g^-1) and hemicellulose (ca. 382.2 μmol·h^-1·g^-1) as the electron donor respectively. Theoretical calculation results indicated that establishing the interfacial effect between Ni₂P and CdS optimized their work functions. This optimization fosters improved the redistribution between electrons and holes, as a result, photocatalytic hydrogen production from biomass solution was greatly enhanced. Significantly, Ni₂P/CdS showed dual functionalities to produce H₂ and value-added compounds from raw biomass directly. This present work demonstrates the potential of raw biomass photorefining through astutely designing photocatalysts.

Keywords: Biomass photorefing; H(2) production; Interfacial effect; Ni2P/CdS.