Highly efficient hydrogen evolution catalysis based on MoS2/CdS/TiO2 porous composites

Abstract

Efficient production of hydrogen through visible-light-driven water splitting mechanism using semiconductor-based composites has been identified as a promising strategy for converting light into clean H2 fuel. However, researchers are facing lots of challenges such as light absorption and electron-hole pair recombination and so on. Here, new sheet-shaped MoS2 and pyramid-shaped CdS in-situ co-grown on porous TiO2 photocatalysts (MoS2CdSTiO2) are successfully obtained via mild sulfuration of MoO3 and CdO coexisted inside porous TiO2 monolith by a hydrothermal route. The scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results exhibit that the MoS2CdSTiO2 composites have average pore size about 500 nm. The 3%MoS210%CdSTiO2 demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity and high stability for a hydrogen production with a high H2-generation rate of 4146 μmol h−1 g−1 under visible light irradiation even without noble-metal co-catalysts. The super photocatalytic performance of the visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution is predominantly attributed to the synergistic effect. The conduction band of MoS2 facilitates in transporting excited electrons from visible-light on CdS to the porous TiO2 for catalytic hydrogen production, and holes to MoS2 for inhibiting the photocorrosion of CdS, respectively, leading to enhancing the efficient separation of electrons and holes.