Abstract
Noble metals as cocatalysts for hydrogen evolution are widely investigated for semiconductor photocatalytic water splitting. In this paper, we present a novel way to attach not only noble metals, but also transitional metals onto CdS nanocrystals as cocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. The hydrogen evolution performances for each metal were compared and result shows that Pd attached CdS gives the highest hydrogen evolution rate of 250 μmol/h. The amounts of metal ions attached on the surface were measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). This work confirms that surface modification is a promising way of attaching cocatalysts onto semiconductor photocatalysts.
Highlights
Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using semiconductor powder materials has gained considerable attention because of the importance of utilizing solar energy as renewal energy to form green fuel [1]
Transitional metals can be attached to the surface of CdS NCs (Figure 1)
All the noble metals improved H2 evolution rate compare to bare CdS NCs, among which, the highest hydrogen evaluation rate of 255 was achieved by Pd which is around 30% higher than that of photo deposited Pd
Summary
Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using semiconductor powder materials has gained considerable attention because of the importance of utilizing solar energy as renewal energy to form green fuel [1]. Cocatalysts play an extremely important role as it helps to promote charge separation, which in return reduces bulk and surface electron/hole recombination [2]. There are two main ways to deposit cocatalyst on semiconductors, i.e. photodeposition and impregnation. Both ways always result in nonuniform distribution of the cocatalysts on the surface. Alternative methods and low-cost cocatalyst materials are still much needed for the synthesis of low-cost, highly stable and effective water splitting photocatalyst systems
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
