Facile fabrication of titania-ordered cubic mesoporous carbon composite: Effect of Ni doping on photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Hitherto TiO₂ is the most popular catalyst for photocatalytic H₂ generation and reduction of organic pollutants due to its chemical inertness, high activity, and abundance. In this work, ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-8 supported TiO₂ nanoparticles loaded with non-noble metal Ni, denoted as Ni[sbnd]TiO₂@CMK-8 are fabricated for application in photocatalytic H₂ generation. Our results demonstrate that the developed composite exhibit exceptional photocatalytic activity for H₂ generation (3556 μmol g⁻¹) under 300 W Xe lamp irradiation (with an external quantum efficiency of 37.9%), which is around 10 times higher than pure TiO₂ and 4 times that of TiO₂@CMK-8. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is attributed to the well-dispersed TiO₂ in the ordered mesoporous carbon structure of CMK-8. The performance is boosted by the black body-like light absorbance of CMK-8 and plasmonic effect of Ni. Enhanced UV–visible light absorbance, large surface area and the loaded Ni metal synergistically improve the charge-carrier kinetics to attain highly efficient photocatalytic H₂ generation. The Ni[sbnd]TiO₂@CMK-8 composite shows enhanced activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol as well.