Carbon encapsulated CdTe nanorods to execute the enhanced and photo corrosion free hydrogen production

Abstract

We present carbon-encapsulated CdTe nanorods synthesized through a well-established hydrothermal method. The impact of varying weight percentages of carbon on CdTe nanorods has been explored. XRD, HR-TEM, XPS, Raman and UV-Vis characterization techniques are used to examine the physicochemical and optical properties of prepared compounds. The loading of the carbon layer can be regulated by varying the quantity of sucrose utilized during the synthesis process. The optimized photocatalyst exhibits a superior rate of hydrogen evolution at 247.7 mmol. h−1. g−1cat compared to bare CdTe nanorods. Here, the carbon layer serves a dual purpose as a photocorrosion inhibitor and facilitates electron tunneling for surface reactions. This combined effect of carbon on CdTe is responsible for the observed improvement in the hydrogen evolution rate. As the loading of carbon varies, the activity is aligning closely with the light penetration effect in photocatalysis. Furthermore, we investigated the durability of the optimized photocatalyst, revealing that it retains 89 % of its initial activity even after five cycles. After the activity experiments, essential characterizations such as XRD, Raman and XPS were also analyzed, and the solar to H2 conversion efficiency was computed.