Photocatalysis shows the importance of creating green energy while taking advantages of the sun. Mn2+ doped ZnSe nanoparticles with long excited state lifetime can overcome the limit in photocatalysis, which brought up great interests. Then, Mn2+ doped ZnSe NPs were used to produce hydrogen. Mn2+ doped ZnSe NPs were made and deposited on film with NiO electrode, which was covered with 7 nm Al2O3 and different thickness of Pt. The film was put in 0.5 M ascorbic acid solution in 50:50 ethanol: water and excited with xenon lamp to produce H2. Over 23 hours, over 160 ppm of H2, about 0.05 μmol of H2, was made in the vial. H2 was made using the structure developed in this project. The efficiency of producing H2 using Mn2+ doped ZnSe NPs will be detected in the future.
