Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Integrating Dual Co-Catalysts on Heterophase CdS Nano-Junctions

Abstract

Development of novel low price porous nanostructures with robust photocatalytic hydrogen generation rate and high durability is critical to help to meet the future energy demand. A prominent number of sunlight active semiconductor photocatalyst nanostructures have been formulated for the aforementioned photocatalytic reactions. However, their practical application has been limited by low efficiency and unstability induced by the rapid recombination of charge carriers. To effectively reduce the recombination rate, the addition of electron-transporting cocatalysts is a promising strategy. However, the rate of photogenerated holes is generally slower than that of photogenerated electrons, extending the recombination. To overcome this difficulty in this study for the first time, coloading of both photogenerated electrons and hole-transporting cocatalysts (C@CoS2 and TFA) on light-harvesting semiconductor heterophase homojunction CdS (OD-2D CdS) is established as a productive way to ameliorate the photocatalytic water splitting efficiency. Benefiting from the huge active catalytic sites, high light harvesting capacity and suitable band structure, the nanohybrid exhibits a prominent amount of hydrogen 87.73 mmol·gcat –1·h–1 was evolved with high durability. We believe that the results presented herein may expand the potential uses of sunlight active catalysts for sustainable and clean H2 fuel production and to help satisfy the future energy demand.

Drastic Improvement of 1D-CdS Solar-Driven Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Rate by Integrating with NiFe Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets Synthesized by Liquid-Phase Pulsed-Laser Ablation

“…Figure b shows PL spectra of CdS nanorods and CdS/NiFe nanocomposites upon an excitation wavelength of 380 nm. Both spectra exhibit an emission peak at about 530 nm, which is the near band edge emission of CdS. , However, the emission intensity of CdS/NiFe nanocomposites is much lower than that of CdS nanorods, which suggests the reduced recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs due to carrier transfer from CdS to NiFe. To further probe the carrier dynamics in CdS/NiFe nanocomposites, the lifetimes of band gap states were examined by time-resolved PL spectroscopy (Figure S9).…”

Visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production coupled with selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol over CdS@MoS2 heterostructures

“…Thus, the lifetime was prolonged and the PL intensity of CdS@MoS 2 became weaker. Owing to a prolonged lifetime, the charge carrier lifetime and charge separation efficiency of CdS@MoS 2 were enhanced and its photocatalytic performance was greatly improved [15,21,30,58]. The light absorption of CdS NRs, pure MoS 2 and the CdS@MoS 2 samples were explored by using UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (Fig.…”

“…Semiconductor catalysts, such as TiO 2 [16], ZnS [17], and CdS [18,19], have been used for photocatalytic hydrogen production owing to their low cost, good stability, and low toxicity. CdS is particularly amenable for visible-light-driven hydrogen production because of its narrow bandgap and suitable position of the band edge [20][21][22]. However, CdS has some disadvantages, such as the absence of a catalytically active site and a rapid recombination rate of the photogenerated charge carriers [23][24][25].…”

Syngas production by dry reforming of the mixture of glycerol and ethanol with CaCO3

“…Therefore, utilizing the biomass-derived glycerol as a hydrogen donor not only serves to reduce the costs of biodiesel, but also serves as an ideal outlet for the superfluous glycerol. Crude glycerol consists not only of glycerol but also of impurities, such as lower alcohols, soap, catalysts, salts, and other organics [21] . Although ethanol is not the main impurity, it exhibits properties similar to those of glycerol, which makes its separation difficult, particularly as a raw material for transesterification [22,23] .…”