Photocatalytic hydrogen generation using colloidal covalent organic polymers decorated bimetallic Au-Pd nanoalloy (COPs/Pd-Au)

•A N-rich COF-immobilized Pd-Au alloy NPs was prepared through the in-situ reduction.•The N-groups on COPs skeleton behaves as efficient sites for the metals ions anchoring.•The alloy-content photocatalyst allows the selective H2 generation with excellent efficiency.•The visible light illumination lead to about 50% increase in the generated H2 yield. Photocatalytic H2 generation has been considered as an effective method for H2 generation, in which the cocatalysts play a critical role. Here, we report highly reactive nanocomposites composed of two-dimensional triazine-based covalent organic Polymers (COPs), Pd and Au nanocomponents which is designed to benefit from the alloying and visible light illumination effects as well as LSPR effect. Photocatalytic hydrogen production was achieved under low-cost visible light-driven. The COP/Pd-Au exhibited higher photocatalytic outstanding turnover frequency of 260.5 h − 1, which was 1.47 times of that under no light (177.3 h − 1). Additionally, it exhibits much advanced catalytic performance, which is 2.83-fold that of COP/Pd (91.98 h − 1) and 434.17-fold that of COP/Au (0.60 h − 1), under the similar reaction conditions. The great photocatalytic activity for COP/Pd-Au was also ascribed to the strong interface between Pd-Au NPs and COPs, and the preparation of single hollow construction of Pd-Au alloy with porous nature that presented active sites for hydrogen production. [Display omitted]