Two dimensional (2D) semiconductor materials have been recently demonstrated to be effective plasmonic materials and alternatives to costly noble metals. However, tuning the plasmon resonance of 2D semiconductors and integrating with another material or semiconductor for various applications, such as solar light harvesting, remains a challenge. Herein, we designed a simple and attractive method, which facilitates the diffusion of oxygen from the graphene oxide (GO) layers of the MoS 2 /GO (MG) composite to oxidize the MoS 2 layers significantly due to thermal treatment under inert atmosphere. This is the key step in the formation of MoS 2 /MoO 3−x / RGO (MMR) (x = 0, 0.5, and 1, and all stoichiometries co-exist), due to disproportionation of MoS 2 /GO, with bulk heterojunctions among the components. The observed behavior is attributed to the oxidation of Mo 4+ cations (of MoS 2 ) to higher oxidation states in MMR (Mo 5+ and Mo 6+ of MoO 3−x ), which also alters the valence-band electronic structure and work function of the resulting composite. The 2D MoO 3−x layers with a large amount of Mo 5+ oxidation states enables facile charge carrier generation due to plasmonic effect, whereas MoS 2 provides active sites for catalysis. The solar H 2 generation was demonstrated in the visible and near-infrared region by combining both the plasmonic and catalytic effects in one composite. These results demonstrate the important role of RGO to provide energy-level alignment, charge carrier diffusion, and help to generate plasmonic effect in the composite.
Pt is the best cocatalyst for hydrogen production. It is also well-known that the surface atomic layer is critical for catalysis. To minimize the Pt content as cocatalyst, herein we report on half-a-monolayer of Pt (0.5θ Pt ) decorated on earthabundant Ni−Cu cocatalyst, which is integrated with a quasiartificial leaf (QuAL) device (TiO 2 /ZnS/CdS) and demonstrated for efficient solar hydrogen production. For the QuAL, TiO 2 is sensitized with ZnS and CdS quantum dots by the SILAR method. The 0.5θ Pt -decorated Ni−Cu shows an onset potential of 0.05 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode for the hydrogen evolution reaction, which is almost similar to that of commercial Pt/C. Photoactivity of the present QuAL device with either bulk Pt or 0.5θ Pt -coated Ni−Cu cocatalyst is, surprisingly, equal. Our findings underscore that a fraction of a monolayer of Pt can enhance the activity of the cocatalyst, and it is worth exploring further for the high activity associated with atomic Pt and other noble metals.
While photocatalytic overall water splitting progress is mainly hindered by sluggish oxygen evolution kinetics, photocatalytic hydrogen generation using biomass components, such as glycerol as a sacrificial reagent, is a prudent...
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