Interfacial Heterojunction Formation Modulating the Charge Carrier’s Pathway of CdS@CoSe₂/WS₂ Nanocomposites for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Hydrogen fuel production via solar-assisted water splitting offers a promising route toward carbon neutrality by addressing energy and environmental problems. Producing hydrogen on a large scale and at an affordable price requires the development of extremely efficient photocatalysts. Therefore, we designed a noble-metal-free ternary heterojunction comprising 1D CdS nanorods, 2D WS 2 nanosheets, and metal−organic framework (ZIF-67)-derived CoSe 2 nanostructures. The fabricated CdS@ CoSe 2 /WS 2 nanocomposite exhibits good photostability and a high hydrogen yield of 246.98 mmol g −1 h −1 owing to its strong visible light harvesting capabilities and optimum band edge levels. Moreover, the asobtained nanocomposites offer numerous active sites to trigger strong light reflection, which boosts their absorption capacity and plays a major role in alleviating the charge carrier transport rate to permit their separation. We believe that the present work opens up new possibilities for the development of a CdS-based photocatalyst for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production in the visible-light region.