Interface Cd-N bond bridge accelerating charge separation to the enhanced visible light driven hydrogen production from water splitting on polyaniline@Cd-Zn-S photocatalyst

Abstract

The key to the industrialization of eco-friendly hydrogen production from visible light driven water splitting is the development of photocatalyst with high performance and superior stability. Herein, a novel core-shell structure polyaniline@Cd-Zn-S (Cd/Zn = 0.8/0.2) nanorod photocatalyst with the shell thickness at ∼3 nm was constructed successfully. With polyaniline served as core, the construction of polyaniline@Cd-Zn-S reduced the charge transfer resistance and released reactive sites maximumly which could benefit the hydrogen production. The constructed polyaniline@Cd-Zn-S exhibited excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency and stability with the assistance of interface Cd-N bonds. The introduction of Cd-N bonds at the interface was inferred by both experimental and DFT simulated results. It served as the bridge between shell Cd-Zn-S and core polyaniline and promoted the directional transmission and efficient separation of photo generated charge carriers. Meanwhile, the improved directional transmission of photogenerated holes restricted photo corrosion effect of the Cd-Zn-S effectively and contributed to the photocatalytic stability. The hydrogen production without any cocatalyst increased more than 6 times to 721 μmol·h−1 after the construction of core-shell structure, and remain stable for 12 consecutive hours without photocatalytic performance reduction. This work proposed a new inspiring structural model for hetero junction construction of photocatalyst, and brought an interesting enlightenment to the development of eco-friendly hydrogen production technology.