Preparation and photocatalytic H2 production property of graphene oxide/CdS/single crystal ZnO nanorod ternary hybrids

Abstract

In order to further improve the photocatalytic H2 production ability of CdS/single crystal ZnO nanorod heterostructure (CZ), graphene oxide/CdS/single crystal ZnO nanorod hybrid (GCZ) were synthesized by microwave-assisted co-precipitation method, and the influence of graphene oxide (GO) content on the properties of ternary materials was tested. Experimental results exhibit that GO further enhance the photocatalytic H2 production capacity of CZ material. When GO wt% is 2.91%, the as-prepared products have the best photocatalytic H2 production capacity, which its average H2 production rate is 6.511 mmol g−1 h−1. The enhancement for H2 production capacity benefits from increasing specific surface area, reducing bandgap energy of ZnO and accelerating the migration rate of photo-induced carriers due to the superior property of GO and building efficient heterojunction between ZnO and CdS.