Green synthesis of Ag2S nanoparticle from sweet cherry on ultrasound-assisted prepared NiMoO4/g-C3N4 nanocomposite for photocatalytic H2 production

Abstract

Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water is important in terms of producing various photocatalysts because it is an environmentally friendly, clean, and renewable energy source. In this work, we reported that NiMoO4/g-C3N4/Ag2S were obtained through the green synthesis method using sweet cherry. The structural, morphological, and optical features of synthesized photocatalysts were evaluated by XRD, FTIR, UV–visible DRS, SEM, TEM, and XPS. In addition, the electrochemical measurements were investigated. The hydrogen production yields of all photocatalysts were determined by gas chromatography with a thermal conductive detector for a total reaction time of 4 h. The resulting NiMoO4/g-C3N4/Ag2S has the highest hydrogen production rate with 2040.2 μmol g−1 h−1 compared to NiMoO4, g-C3N4, Ag2S and NiMoO4/g-C3N4. In this catalyst design system, in the entity of an electric field created by the S-scheme heterostructure of NiMoO4/g-C3N4/Ag2S, influential directional migration of photocarriers is acquired, and recombination of useful charge carriers is avoided. This work highlights the utilization of green synthesis of ternary nanocomposite from sweet cherry for photocatalytic hydrogen production.