Pure carbon nanodots for excellent photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Pure carbon nanodots (CNDs) without any modification and co-catalyst can drive photocatalytic hydrogen generation. The hydrogen generation rate of CNDs reaches 3615.3 μmol g−1 h−1 when methanol was used as the sacrificial donor, which is 34.8 times higher than that of commercial Degussa P25 photocatalyst under the same conditions. Moreover, the CNDs show good stability; the hydrogen generation rate has negligible change even after four cycles of testing.