Photothermalcatalytic Hydrogen Production by Continuous Gaseous Water Splitting over Ni₃N/g‐C₃N₄

Abstract The initiation of the water splitting reaction necessitates a considerable energy input and the associated energy barrier can be notably mitigated through the utilization of appropriate catalysts. Ni 3 N/g‐C 3 N 4 catalyst was synthesized through a combination of thermal decomposition and hydrothermal synthesis techniques for photothermal water splitting reaction. The catalyst was characterized using XRD, HRTEM, UV–vis, XPS, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and photoluminescence (PL). It was observed that the Ni 3 N promoter is uniformly dispersed on the g‐C 3 N 4 exerting no discernible influence on the surface structure and crystal phase of the g‐C 3 N 4 .The incorporation of Ni 3 N effectively decreases the resistance of g‐C 3 N 4 , enhances the photocurrent intensity, facilitates the transfer of photogenerated electrons from g‐C 3 N 4 to Ni 3 N, and suppresses the recombination of photogenerated carriers. Additionally, the findings from the photothermal water splitting experiments revealed that g‐C 3 N 4 decreased the activation energy to 71.23 kJ·mol −1 , while the Ni 3 N promoter further lowered it to 19.73 kJ·mol −1 .