Non-noble metal copper phosphide deposited on the surface of cadmium sulfide nanorods can effectively enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance

Abstract

As an efficient, cheap and durable cocatalyst, CuP has been a the research hotspot in the field of light-driven water decomposition for hydrogen production. In this study, the amorphous CuP cocatalyst with defects and unsaturated edge sites was deposited on the surface of CdS nanorods by in-situ photodeposition strategy, strategy to synthesize CuP/CdS composite photocatalyst materials. The CuP/CdS composite with 10% CuP loading content presents high hydrogen evolution activity (906 μmol g−1h−1), 16 times of single CdS. In addition, the characterization shows that the coupling of CuP nanoparticles with CdS as a cocatalyst can not only enhance the visible light absorption, effectively shorten the band gap width, but also improve the separation efficiency of h+-e- pairs and enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance. This work provides a new approach to design and develop CdS based photocatalytic materials with low cost, strong stability and high efficiency.