Oxidation co-catalyst modified In2S3 with efficient interfacial charge transfer for boosting photocatalytic H2 evolution

Abstract

Constructing an efficient co-catalyst/photocatalyst system for charge separation boosting photocatalytic hydrogen generation is a vital challenge. Herein, highly-dispersed PdS nanoparticles (NPs) acting as an efficient hole co-catalyst has been decorated on the ultrathin In2S3 nanosheets. The strong interactions between PdS and In2S3 via Pd–S–In bonds enable an intimate interface junction. Due to the high capacity of PdS for the hole capture with the assistance of internal electric field, the photogenerated charge carriers are not only separated effectively, the semiconductor photocatalyst In2S3 is also protected from the photo-oxidation. As expected, a remarkable H2 production rate of 142.27 μmol/h has been achieved for 3PdS/In2S3 nanocomposite, which is 149.8 times higher than that of the pristine In2S3 nanosheets, and 13.3 times superior to the In2S3 decorated with a reductive co-catalyst Pt. This work provides a new insight into the co-catalyst modification engineering for an efficient photocatalytic energy conversion.