Single‐Atom Phosphorus Defects Decorated CoP Cocatalyst Boosts Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation Performance of Cd_0.5Zn_0.5S by Directed Separating the Photogenerated Carriers

Abstract

Design and preparation of an efficient and nonprecious cocatalysts, with structural features and functionality necessary for improving photocatalytic performance of semiconductors, remain a formidable challenge until now. Herein, for the first time, a novel CoP cocatalyst with single‐atom phosphorus vacancies defects (CoP‐Vp) is synthesized and coupled with Cd0.5Zn0.5S to build CoP‐Vp@Cd0.5Zn0.5S (CoP‐Vp@CZS) heterojunctions photocatalysts via a liquid phase corrosion method following by an in suit growth process. The nanohybrids deliver an attractive photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 2.05 mmol h−1 30 mg−1 under visible‐light irradiation, which is 14.66 times higher than that of the pristine ZCS samples. As expected, CoP‐Vp further enhances the charge‐separation efficiency of ZCS, in addition to the improvement of the electron transfer efficiency, which is confirmed by the ultrafast spectroscopies. Mechanism studies based on density functional theory calculations verify that Co atoms adjacent with single‐atom Vp play the key role in translation, rotation, and transformation of electrons for H2O reduction. This scalable strategy focusing defect engineering provides a new insight into designing the highly active cocatalysts to boost the photocatalytic application.

Anchoring 0D Cd0.5Zn0.5S nanoparticles on a 3D porous N-doped Ti3C2Tx MXene matrix for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

“…Additionally, the bandgap (E g ) of CZS can be calculated by the formula (ahn) = A(hn À E g ) 1/2 (where A, a, n, and h represent a constant, absorption coefficient, optical frequency, and Planck's constant, respectively). 60,61 Therefore, the E g of CZS can be estimated to be 2.32 eV from the plots of (ahn) 2 versus (hn) (Fig. 5b).…”

3D nanorod-like Mn0.2Cd0.8S modified by amorphous NiCo2S4 was used for high efficiency photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

“…The photogenerated carriers excited by Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S were enriched by the unexcited NiCo 2 S 4 , thus weakening the photogenerated carrier separation effect of the composites, and giving a lower absorption intensity of light, so that the photocatalytic activity of the Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S/NiCo 2 S 4 could not be excited very well. [35][36][37][38] As shown in Fig. 6(a), the stability test of the Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S/ NiCo 2 S 4 was carried out continuously for 30 h, divided into six cycles, and each cycle was carried out for 5 h of continuous hydrogen production and then replaced with N 2 .…”

A rationally designed 3DTiO2@CdZnS heterojunction photocatalyst for effectively enhanced visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution

“…Researchers have performed a lot of work on the preparation of CdZnS-based composite photocatalysts using cheap semiconductors instead of precious metals. These composite photocatalysts include CoS x /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S, 16 Ni 3 C/Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S, 17 ZnO/Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S, 18 CoP/Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S, 19 Ni 2 P/Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S, 20,21 CuInS 2 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S, 22 W 18 O 49 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S 23 and so on.…”