Coupling Photothermal Effect into Efficient Photocatalytic H2 Production by Using a Plate‐like Cu@Ni Core‐shell Cocatalyst

The Cover Feature shows an ideal photocatalytic process for hydrogen production from water over a composite photocatalyst composed of Cu@Ni core-shell nanoplates and g-C3N4 by coupling photothermal effect with photoelectric effect. In their Full Paper, X. Guo et al. explain that the Cu nanoplate structure having a surface plasma resonance peak at around 580 nm can induce localized hot spots on the surface of Ni. As a result, the photogenerated electrons transferred from g-C3N4 to Ni can be elevated to a more energetic state by this photothermal effect, leading to a substantially improved photocatalytic activity. Their results indicate that photoelectric and photothermal effects can be effectively coupled by integrating metal hetero-nanoparticles. More information can be found in the Full Paper by X. Guo et al.