Deposition of CdS and Au nanoparticles on TiO2(B) spheres towards superior photocatalytic performance

Abstract

TiO2(B)/CdS/Au and TiO2(B)/Au/CdS heterostructures were synthesized to investigate the effect of the selected deposition of CdS and Au nanoparticles (NPs) on H2 generation. TiO2(B) spheres (phase B) consisted of nanosheets were synthesized via a hydrothermal reaction. The deposition of CdS and Au NPs were carried out using wet-chemical method and a reduction reaction, respectively. The size and amount of Au and CdS NPs were adjusted to optimize the resulting properties and discuss the change of band gap. Two kinds of heterogeneous revealed different photocatalytic hydrogen generation which indicated the position of Au NPs affect the transfer of photogenerated carriers. The hydrogen production rate of TiO2(B)/CdS/Au heterostructures reached up to 12100 μmol g−1 h−1, which is about 3.8 times of that of pure TiO2(B) spheres. This is ascribed to the structure of heterostructures. CdS NPs increase the separation of photogenerated electrons and Au NPs accelerated the transfer of the electrons. The result provided a utilizable strategy for efficient photocatalysis H2 generation.