Pd nanoparticle-decorated covalent organic frameworks for enhanced photocatalytic tetracycline hydrochloride degradation and hydrogen evolution

In this study, we synthesized novel bipyridine-based, sp2-carbon-linked COFs with the incorporation of ultra-small metal nanoparticles for enhanced photocatalytic tetracycline hydrochloride degradation and hydrogen evolution. The obtained photocatalyst exhibits strong visible light absorption and modulated electronic structure, owing to charge transfer between the metal and COFs, resulting in tuned proton absorption/desorption energy. As a result, the Pd-COFs exhibit remarkable photocatalytic activities for both tetracycline hydrochloride removal and hydrogen evolution. Specifically, the rate constant of photocatalytic tetracycline hydrochloride removal reaches 0.03406 min-1 with excellent stability and the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate reaches 98.17 mmol g-1 h-1, outperforming the-state-of-the-art photocatalysts with noble Pt loading.