Highly Stable Phosphonate-Based MOFs with Engineered Bandgaps for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Yun-Pei Zhu; Jun Yin; Edy Abou-Hamad; Xiaokang Liu; Wei Chen; Tao Yao; Omar F Mohammed; Husam N Alshareef

doi:10.1002/adma.201906368

Highly Stable Phosphonate-Based MOFs with Engineered Bandgaps for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Adv Mater. 2020 Apr;32(16):e1906368. doi: 10.1002/adma.201906368. Epub 2020 Mar 4.

Authors

Yun-Pei Zhu¹, Jun Yin², Edy Abou-Hamad³, Xiaokang Liu⁴, Wei Chen⁵, Tao Yao⁴, Omar F Mohammed², Husam N Alshareef¹

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
² Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
³ Core Lab, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, Anhui, 230029, China.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, Anhui, 230029, China.

PMID: 32129916
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201906368

Abstract

Photoactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) represent one of the most promising materials for photocatalytic hydrogen production, but phosphonate-based MOFs have remained largely underdeveloped compared to other conventional MOFs. Herein, a photocatalyst of 1D titanium phosphonate MOF is designed through an easy and scalable stirring hydrothermal method. Homogeneous incorporation of organophosphonic linkers can narrow the bandgap, which is due to the strong electron-donating ability of the OH functional group that can efficiently shift the top of the valence band, moving the light absorption to the visible portion of the spectrum. In addition, the unique 1D nanowire topology enhances the photoinduced charge carrier transport and separation. Accordingly, the titanium phosphonate nanowires deliver remarkably enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity under irradiation of both visible light and a full-spectrum simulator. Such concepts of engineering both nanostructures and electronic states herald a new paradigm for designing MOF-based photocatalysts.

Keywords: bandgap engineering; hydrogen evolution; metal-organic frameworks (MOFs); photocatalysis.

Abstract

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