Highly active Co2P/2H-1T MoS2 cocatalyst with fast charge transfer and H2 production reaction toward effective photocatalytic activity of P-TiO2

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Cobalt phosphide (Co2P) and molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) have been shown to be efficient cocatalysts for photocatalytic H2O splitting reactions in hydrogen (H2) production. However, maintaining remarkable stability while obtaining high photocatalytic efficiency remains challenging due to the limited optical absorption. Herein, Co2P and MoS2 nanospecies were securely mounted as cocatalysts on phosphorous-titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanobelts to achieve increased activity and stability for photocatalytic H2 evolution. The photocatalytic H2 yield of the 2Co2P/P-TiO2/2H-1T MoS2 material driven by visible light was 4156 μmol/g, which was 129 and 2.3 times higher compared to those of TiO2 (32 μmol/g) and 2H-1T MoS2/TiO2 (1800 μmol/g), respectively. In particular, 2Co2P/P-TiO2/2H-1T MoS2 exhibited consistently stable photocatalytic H2 evolution while undergoing more than eight cycles of reactions for a total of 8 h. A thorough understanding of the modification effect of the Co2P and 2H-1T MoS2 nanospecies reveals that the modification strongly promotes the migration and separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs and increases the interaction at the heterointerfaces between the Co2P and 2H-1T MoS2 nanospecies and P-TiO2 nanobelts. This study broadens the potential use of Co2P and 2H-1T MoS2 as co-catalysts for the photocatalytic conversion of solar energy to chemical energy.