Revolutionary amorphous MoP quantum dots as efficient visible light harvester coupled with SiC for boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production

Green hydrogen is widely recognized as one of the most promising new renewable energy sources that can replace traditional fossil fuels. At the same time, the photocatalytic decomposition of water to produce hydrogen is also considered a renewable and sustainable process of converting solar energy into chemical energy. Herein, in this paper, a high-performance MoP/SiC composite photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile low-temperature hydrothermal method. Notably, we used a solid-state low-temperature phosphating method to prepare MoP with amorphous properties and quantum dot size (2–3 nm) as a photocatalytic hydrogen production co-catalyst, which affords an effective way of alternating precious metal co-catalysts. The results of H2 production studies display that amorphous MoP quantum dots can dramatically strengthen the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance of SiC. Especially, as the loading of MoP is up to 2.5%, it has the optimal hydrogen production performance, the hydrogen production rate is so high that it reaches 589.23 μmol h−1 g−1 with a quantum yield (QY 400–700 nm) 27.66%, which is 25 folds compared with that of pure SiC. The brilliant co-catalytic behaviour of the amorphous MoP quantum dots is ascribed to their unique amorphous structure and ultra-small particle size, which substantially enhances the photogenerated charge separation efficiency of the main catalyst SiC, as well as reveals plenty of hydrogen-producing active sites, which further facilitates the reaction over the catalyst surface. This work unlocks a new and unprecedented strategy for SiC-based composite photocatalysts in the field of photocatalysis.