Pollen Carbon-Based Rare-Earth Composite Material for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production from Ethanol–Water Mixtures

[Image: see text] The unique electronic structure of rare-earth elements makes their modified semiconductor photocatalysts show great advantages in solar energy conversion. Herein, the pollen-like N, P self-doped biochar-based rare-earth composite catalyst (Er/LP-C) has been successfully synthesized, which combines the advantages of biochar and Er and is used for the first time in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen production from ethanol–water mixtures. Experimental results confirmed that the performance of photocatalytic hydrogen production under the full spectrum is up to 33.70 μmol/g in 6 h; this is due to the introduction of Er, which improves the carrier concentration, separation and transfer efficiency, and the driving force for the reduction reaction.