Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Production through MOF/MOF Heterojunctions

Stavroula Kampouri; Fatmah M Ebrahim; Maria Fumanal; Makenzie Nord; Pascal A Schouwink; Radwan Elzein; Rafik Addou; Gregory S Herman; Berend Smit; Christopher P Ireland; Kyriakos C Stylianou

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c23163

Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Production through MOF/MOF Heterojunctions

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Mar 31;13(12):14239-14247. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c23163. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Molecular Simulations, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fedérale de Lausanne (EPFL Valais), Rue de l'Industrie 17, Sion 1951, Switzerland.
² Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University, Gilbert Hall 153, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4003, United States.
³ School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, United States.

PMID: 33749235
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c23163

Abstract

A strategy for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of MOF-based systems (MOF: metal-organic framework) is developed through the construction of MOF/MOF heterojunctions. The combination of MIL-167 with MIL-125-NH₂ leads to the formation of MIL-167/MIL-125-NH₂ heterojunctions with improved optoelectronic properties and efficient charge separation. MIL-167/MIL-125-NH₂ outperforms its single components MIL-167 and MIL-125-NH₂, in terms of photocatalytic H₂ production (455 versus 0.8 and 51.2 μmol h^-1 g^-1, respectively), under visible-light irradiation, without the use of any cocatalysts. This is attributed to the appropriate band alignment of these MOFs, the enhanced visible-light absorption, and long charge separation within MIL-167/MIL-125-NH₂. Our findings contribute to the discovery of novel MOF-based photocatalytic systems that can harvest solar energy and exhibit high catalytic activities in the absence of cocatalysts.

Keywords: heterojunctions; hydrogen production; metal−organic frameworks; photocatalysis; stability.