In situ synthesis of a nickel boron oxide/graphdiyne hybrid for enhanced photo/electrocatalytic H2 evolution

Developing highly active catalysts for photo/electrocatalytic water splitting is an attractive strategy to produce H2 as a renewable energy source. In this study, a new nickel boron oxide/graphdiyne (NiBi/GDY) hybrid catalyst was prepared by a facile synthetic approach. Benefitting from the strong electron donating ability of graphdiyne, NiBi/GDY showed an optimized electronic structure containing lower valence nickel atoms and demonstrated improved catalytic performance. As expected, NiBi/GDY displayed a high photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 4.54 mmol g−1 h−1, 2.9 and 4.5 times higher than those of NiBi/graphene and NiBi, respectively. NiBi/GDY also displayed outstanding electrocatalytic H2 evolution activity in 1.0 M KOH solution, with a current density of 400 mA/cm2 at an overpotential of 478.0 mV, which is lower than that of commercial Pt/C (505.3 mV@400 mA/cm2). This work demonstrates that GDY is an ideal support for the development of highly active catalysts for photo/electrocatalytic H2 evolution.