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Abstract
Alkali-activated magnesium slag-based nanocomposite (AMSN) by loaded about 5wt% CuO was synthesized and firstly employed as a novel catalyst for production of hydrogen by photocatalytic water-splitting. The XRD and XPS results indicated that there was principally mineralogical phase of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) in AMSN, and CuO with a mean particle size of 15 nm dispersed on the surface of AMSN. The UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectrum and photoluminescence spectrum revealed that the CuO/AMSN sample showed a strong absorption edge at 1.4 eV and a weak photoluminescence peak at 394 nm, respectively. The CuO/AMSN catalyst showed the highest H2 evolution in amount of 102.95μL/g by photocatalytic water-splitting for 6 h due to the synergistic effect between CSH skeleton network and CuO nanoparticles. A mechanism of photocatalytic H2 production was suggested.