Carbon-Doping as Efficient Strategy for Improving Photocatalytic Activity of Polysilicon Supported Pd in Hydrogen Evolution from Formic Acid

Abstract

Interest in cost-effective materials pushes researchers to the inexpensive and abundant semiconductors to use photons’ energy for generating electrons and holes required for photocatalytic transformations. At the same time, polysilicon is one of the economic semiconductors with a disadvantage of high bandgap which could be solved by carbon-doping. We employed this strategy to the synthesis of carbon-doped polysilicon by a new approach starting from citric acid and methyltrimethoxysilane. The nanocomposite obtained was utterly characterized, and compared with bare polysilicon; increased UV–Vis absorbance and shift to higher wavelengths were the most notable characteristics of the synthesized catalyst. The carbon-doped polysilicon was modified with Pd nanoparticles to obtain a new heterogeneous photocatalyst for the formic acid degradation. The decomposition of formic acid was photocatalyzed by the obtained nanocomposite with a hydrogen production turnover frequency of up to 690 h−1. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the catalyst is stable and recyclable.

Keywords

• polymer
• nanostructures
• silicon
• hydrogen generation
• palladium