The synergetic effect of carbon nanotubes and MoS2 as co-catalysts for enhancing the photocatalytic oxygen evolution of Ag3PO4

Abstract

Employing co-catalysts to develop high efficiency photocatalytic materials are a promising solution to improve solar oxygen evolution, especially designing a novel multi-cocatalyst combined heterojunction with synergetic effects between different components. Herein, one dimensional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and two dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as dual co-catalysts modified Ag3PO4 photocatalysts were prepared employing an in-situ co-corporation method. The resulting CNTs/MoS2/Ag3PO4 ternary nanocomposite showed 3 and 5-folds increased photocatalytic oxygen evolution activity compared to their binary CNTs/Ag3PO4 and MoS2/Ag3PO4 composites under LED irradiation, indicating the great potential of synergistic effect of dual co-catalysts in constructing high performance photocatalysts. The introduction of CNTs and MoS2 dual cocatalysts can encourage the separation of the photogenerated charge carriers more effectively compared with single cocatalyst, consequently improving the photocatalytic oxygen evolution activity. Our results have demonstrated an approach worthy for the design and production of high effectiveness photocatalyst system employing cocatalyst for water splitting.