Highest Hydrogen Production Rate Research Articles

Low-Voltage Hydrogen Production via Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidation Facilitated by Oxo Ligand Axially Coordinated to Cobalt in Phthalocyanine Moiety.

A cobalt phthalocyanine having an electron-poor CoN4 (+δ) in its phthalocyanine moietywas presented as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen peroxide oxidation reaction (HPOR). Wesuggested that hydrogen peroxide as an electrolysis medium for hydrogen production and therefore as a hydrogen carrier, demonstrating that the electrocatalyst guaranteed high hydrogen production rate by hydrogen peroxide splitting. The electron deficiency of cobalt allows CoN4 to have the highly HPOR-active monovalent oxidation state and facilitates HPOR at small overpotentials range around the onset potential. The strong interaction between the electron-deficient cobalt and oxygen of peroxide adsorbates in Co─OOH- encourages an axially coordinated cobalt oxo complex (O═CoN4 ) to form, the O═CoN4 facilitating the HPOR efficiently at high overpotentials. Low-voltage oxygen evolution reaction guaranteeing low-voltage hydrogen production is successfully demonstrated in the presence of the metal-oxo complex having electron-deficient CoN4 . Hydrogen production by 391mA cm-2 at 1V and 870mA cm-2 at 1.5V is obtained. Also, the techno-economic benefit of hydrogen peroxide as a hydrogen carrier is evaluated by comparing hydrogen peroxide with other hydrogen carriers such as ammonia and liquid organic hydrogen carriers.

Continuous dark-fermentative H2 production using carbon components of lignocellulose hydrolysates: Insight into the difference between mixed and single substrates

Hydrogen produced from lignocellulosic biomass via dark fermentation is a promising alternative to fossil fuels. This study assessed fermentative H2 production from single sugars and sugar mixtures mimicking real lignocellulose hydrolysates during a continuous process. The highest hydrogen production rate (HPR) was obtained with pentose sugars, reaching 8.80 and 8.09 L/L-d for arabinose and xylose, respectively. Glucose showed the lowest HPR (6.19 L/L-d), while in the case of sugar mixtures (glucose, cellobiose, xylose, arabinose), HPR was approximately 7.3 L/L-d and was lower than expected from calculations. Thus, cofermentation reduced the H2 production potential. It was shown that pentose sugars are preferred for hydrogen production, but their utilization is limited by the presence of glucose, which is utilized preferentially in sugar mixtures. Xylose, arabinose and sugar mixtures showed similar H2 yields (approximately 0.29 mol H2/mol C), so the efficiency of substrate conversion into H2 was comparable for these substrates. The microbial community distribution showed that the Clostridium genus was dominant regardless of the substrate, with Clostridium beijerinckii and Clostridium guangxiense being the main bacterial species. Different substrates did not significantly affect the type of microorganisms present in the microbiome and changed only their relative abundance.

A Strongly Coupled Ag(S)@NiO/Nickel Foam Electrode Induced by Laser Direct Writing for Hydrogen Evolution at Ultrahigh Current Densities with Long-Term Durability.

Highly active, durable, and cost-effective electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at ultrahigh current densities (≥1 A cm-2 ) are extremely demanded for industrial high-rate hydrogen production, but challenging. Here, a robust strongly coupled Ag(S)@NiO/nickel foam (NF) electrode is reported. Taking advantage of millisecond laser direct writing in liquid nitrogen technique, lattice-matched and coherent interfaces are formed between Ag nanoparticles with stacking faults (denoted by Ag(S)) and NiO nanosheets, leading to strong interfacial electronic coupling, not only promoting H2 O adsorption and dissociation on Ni2+ but also enhancing H* adsorption on intrinsically inactive but most electrically conductive Ag. Strong chemical bonding is established at NiO/NF interface, guaranteeing rapid electron transfer and excellent mechanical durability under high-rate hydrogen evolution. The physicochemically stable electrode achieves record-low alkaline HER overpotential of 167 and 180mV at 1 and 1.5 A cm-2 , respectively, along with negligible activity decay after 120h test at ≈1.5 A cm-2 , surpassing reported non-platinum group metal electrocatalysts.

Facile synthesis of ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets modified with N-doped carbon dots: Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production activity and mechanism insight

In this study, nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs) modified ultrathin carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets were synthesized by a simple secondary calcination method, which realizes efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. The secondary calcination process can not only thermally exfoliate g-C3N4 into ultrathin nanosheets, but also uniformly anchor NCDs (∼3 nm) on the surface of g-C3N4. The photocatalytic results manifested that a very small amount of NCDs (0.5 wt%) loading on g-C3N4 could achieve a high photocatalytic hydrogen production rate (5.21 mmol g−1 h−1). The reasons for the enhanced photocatalytic activity were analyzed. The ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets facilitated the migration of photogenerated carriers. Moreover, NCDs/g-C3N4 exhibited enhanced visible light absorption owing to the up-conversion fluorescence effect of NCDs and the narrow band gap caused by the decoration of NCDs. Furthermore, NCDs as electron acceptors can promote carrier separation. This combination strategy provides a basis for the synthesis of inexpensive, metal-free, and efficient carbon-based photocatalysts.

IrCo single-atom alloy catalysts with optimized d-band center for advanced alkali-Al/acid hybrid fuel cell

Electrochemical energy storage/conversion by utilizing hydrogen (H2) an energy carrier is promising for alleviating the energy crisis. As an emerging H2 production technique, alkali/acid hybrid fuel cell has been reported to exhale H2 and generate electric power spontaneously, which requires highly effective and economically feasible electrocatalysts for cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, IrCo single atom alloy catalysts (SAACs) encapsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (IrCo@NCNTs) was prepared as cathode catalyst for alkali-Al/acid hybrid fuel cell (3AHFC). IrCo@NCNTs with low Ir loading of 2.17 wt% exhibits very low overpotentials for HER in pH-wide electrolytes (pH = 0 and 14) and achieves improved mass activity, which are 8 times and 13 times greater than that of Pt/C in acidic and alkaline medium, respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the high HER activity derives from the lowing of d-band center by introducing Ir, which is favors to tune the electronic structures, leading to the optimized H⁎ adsorption. The assembled IrCo@NCNTs 3AHFC offers a high power density 176.2 mW cm−2, a high hydrogen production rate of 453.0 L m-2 h−1 with high Faradic efficiency of 99.1%, which can compete with those in commercial 20 wt% Pt/C and most reported platinum-free catalysts.

Self-assembled ZnIn2S4/SnS2 QDs S-scheme heterojunction for boosted photocatalytic hydrogen evolution: Energy band engineering and mechanism insight

Rapid and efficient transfer and separation of photo-induced carriers are critical for designing environmentally friendly and efficient photocatalysts in catalytic hydrogen evolution. Here, we design a 0D/2D S-scheme heterojunction involving ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) nanosheets self-assembled with SnS2 quantum dots (QDs). The formation of the S-scheme ZIS/SnS2 QDs heterojunction is demonstrated by experimental characteristics and density functional theory (DFT) analyzes, which greatly promotes charge transfer and transport under the interfacial electric field (IEF), lengthens carrier lifetime, enhances light-harvesting properties, and significantly decreases the Gibbs free energy during the catalysis reaction. Therefore, the optimized ZIS/SnS2 photocatalyst achieves a high hydrogen production rate of 1.13 mmol g−1 h−1, which is 16.14 folds the one of pure ZIS. This study provides novel perspectives into the reasonable design of S-scheme photocatalyst by virtue of the theories of energy band engineering and IEF adjustment.

High-performance metal-base bifunctional catalysts (NixMgy-MMO) for aqueous phase reforming of methanol to hydrogen

Reforming methanol in an aqueous phase is of great interest, including the water–gas shift (WGS) reaction for converting the CO formed from the dehydrogenation of methanol (DM) to CO2 and promoting hydrogen gas production by 50%. Ni-based catalysts are highly active for catalyzing the involved dehydrogenation reaction but perform poorly at the low temperature range for the WGS reaction. In this work, metallic Ni-catalytic sites supported on basic mixed metal oxides (NixMgy-MMO), prepared from NiMgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors, were applied for the first time in the aqueous phase reforming of methanol (APRM). The Ni3Mg1-MMO catalyst demonstrated outstanding catalytic performance with a high hydrogen production rate of 167.2 μmolH2/gcat./s and a low CO selectivity of 1.9% at the temperature of 240 °C. These are among the best literature results for the APRM catalyzed by Ni-based catalysts. Compared to the neutral Ni@NC catalyst, the metal-base bifunctional Ni3Mg1-MMO catalyst significantly boosts the WGS process, reducing the CO selectivity and enhancing the APRM. The structure-performance studies of the NixMgy-MMO catalysts in the reactions of DM, WGS, and APRM showed that the intrinsic activity for DM increases significantly as the Ni particle size decreases, while WGS and APRM reactions are dominantly improved by the medium basic property that originated from Mg-O pairs. As a result, the intrinsic activity of the catalysts in APRM also decreases as the Ni particle size increases. These new findings are transferable to the design of efficient metal-base bifunctional catalysts for reactions similar to WGS and APRM.

Development of multilevel amplified methanol steam reforming microreactor with high hydrogen production rate

Methanol steam reforming using microreactors has been regarded as a promising approach for in-situ hydrogen production, while the generally low hydrogen production rate limits its real application. This study proposed a multilevel series scaled-up methanol steam reforming microreactor with the aim to improve the hydrogen production rate, five methanol combustion chambers are parallel arranged and interspersed into the steam reforming chambers to improve the temperature heating rate and temperature distribution uniformity. A numerical model of methanol steam reforming chamber was established to investigate the flow velocity distribution inside the chamber. The flow velocity in the copper foam region are uniformly distributed, the variations of average flow velocity in cross sections of the copper foams are below 20 %. Experimental results showed that the temperature differences between different layers was lower than 6.7 °C and the variation is smaller than 7.3 °C. A stepwise methanol solution feeding rate test was performed and found the developed microreactor has a quite rapid response speed, the maximum reformate flowrate of 20683 ml/min can be achieved with methanol conversion of 88.3 %. The developed microreactor can significantly improve the hydrogen production rate and temperature distribution uniformity, indicating a potential application in high hydrogen consumption equipment.

Hollow Cd0.9In0.1Se/Cu2MoS4 nanocube S-scheme heterojunction towards high photocatalytic hydrogen production

The solar-driven hydrogen production from water splitting using the composite photocatalyst is a potentially efficient strategy to achieve a stable supply of renewable hydrogen energy. Herein, hollow Cd0.9In0.1Se/Cu2MoS4 nanocubes were prepared through hydrothermal and thermal deposition methods. And the optimized Cd0.9In0.1Se/Cu2MoS4 photocatalyst displayed a high hydrogen production rate of 6358.42 μmol g−1 h−1 and great long-term recyclability. The hollow structure of Cu2MoS4 efficiently improved the utilization ratio of visible light. When Cd0.9In0.1Se nanoparticles was modified on the surface of hollow Cu2MoS4 nanocubes, the S-scheme heterojunction was formed and the built-in electric field at the interface was produced. It effectively facilitated the charge separation and transfer and reduced the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes, thus enhancing the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity. This work provides a new insight for improving photocatalytic hydrogen production performance from the point of view of the hollow structure composite photocatalyst.

Cs-Cu-Cl perovskite quantum dots for photocatalytic H2 evolution with super-high stability

Metal halide perovskites with broad optical absorption and long carrier lifetime are considered as ideal photocatalysts. However, their poor stability in water greatly impedes their application in photocatalytic H2 evolution because they lose their crystalline structure in water. Herein, we proclaim a new class of photocatalysts: all-inorganic Cs-Cu-Cl perovskite quantum dots (QDs). It exhibits a high photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of ∼ 3.1 mmol/g/h without any cocatalyst under AM 1.5-G solar irradiation (100 mW/cm2). Especially, it remains the high activity for up to 330 h without apparent deterioration of the hydrogen production rate. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the Cu site works as the electron and proton absorption sites as the H2 production active center. To our best knowledge, there is no report of metal halide perovskites as water-stable photocatalysts. This work opens an innovative way for guiding the exploration of metal halide perovskites photocatalysts for stable photocatalytic H2 evolution.

Enhanced hydrogen production from cracking of liquid toluene by applying liquid plasma and perovskite catalysts

In this study, a process for producing hydrogen from liquid hydrocarbons by applying plasma is proposed. Toluene was decomposed by discharging a pulse-type plasma into liquid toluene directly. The changes in the rate of hydrogen production and reaction characteristics owing to injecting a perovskite catalyst were also investigated. A high hydrogen production rate of approximately 130 NL/h·g was obtained from the liquid–phase plasma reaction of toluene using the BiFeO3 catalyst. The investigation into the reaction characteristics based on the plasma generation conditions indicated that the reaction was mainly affected by the plasma voltage. When titanium dioxide and perovskite (SrTiO3, BiFeO3) photocatalysts were applied to this reaction, the reaction activities also varied depending on the light-absorption capacity of the catalysts. The highest hydrogen evolution rate was obtained using the BiFeO3 catalyst, which absorbs visible light as well as UV light, compared with the TiO2 photocatalyst, which absorbs only UV light. Because the plasma emission from toluene is predominantly in the visible region, the reaction activity was also determined to be the highest for the BiFeO3 catalyst. The BiFeO3 absorbs visible light up to about 550 nm, and it has a small bandgap energy of about 2.15 eV. This led to high photocatalytic degradation activity in visible light generated by plasma discharge in toluene. The carbon obtained had a particle size of less than 20 nm and purity of approximately 99%.

Single-Atom Cu Channel and N-Vacancy Engineering Enables Efficient Charge Separation and Transfer between C3N4 Interlayers for Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Polymeric carbon nitride (C3N4) has attracted great attention in photocatalysis due to its low-cost, visible-light response, and environment-friendly merits. However, the catalytic efficiency of pristine bulk C3N4 is severely limited by its poor photoinduced electron/hole pair separation and interlayer charge transport. Herein, single-atom Cu is bridged into C3N4 sheet interlayers through the thermal condensation of self-assembly supramolecules of Cu precursors and melamine–cyanuric acid monomers. Simultaneously, N vacancies are engineered into C3N4 only by gradient temperature. The single-atom Cu bridges serve as electron channels to promote photoinduced electron/hole pair separation and interlayer charge transport. The experimental results and calculations demonstrate that N vacancies break the symmetry of pristine C3N4, allowing more electrons to pass through the delocalized π-conjugated network of C3N4 to Cu sites, which facilitates charge transfer between C3N4 layers, resulting in more effective separation of electron/hole pairs, optimal charge distribution, and lower hydrogen evolution barrier. As a result, the photocatalyst at a stationary point with a 1 wt % Pt cocatalyst presents a high visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production rate (11.23 mmol g–1 h–1), reaching a high apparent quantum yield of 31.60% at 420 nm. It is noted that the photocatalyst still exhibits a high hydrogen production rate of 605.15 μmol g–1 h–1 in the absence of the Pt cocatalyst.

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis – effect of pretreatment before electrocoating Ti anode support

In proton exchange membrane water electrolysis system, higher hydrogen production rate, as well as medical-grade ozone generation is obtained if the applied voltage is increased from 2.0 V to 3.5 V. However, this also leads to harsh conditions encountered by both anode and anode support of membrane electrode assembly. For example, Ti plate as anode support, needs coating to prevent corrosion and to stabilize operation. In this study, commercial Ti plates are polished with sand papers of different degree of roughness before electrocoating. The characteristics of the coated Ti anode support are determined by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrolyzer test. In conclusion, the performance of coated Ti anode support improved with polish, reach a maximum and then decrease with highest degree roughness.

Effect of Sulfur Contents in NiZnS Composite Photocatalysts on Solar Water Splitting

Solar energy is attracting much attention as an eco-friendly source for future energy needs. Herein, NiZnS photocatalysts were synthesized with a hydrothermal method at various sulfur contents. The ZnS material is widely used as a photocatalyst because of its high stability, low toxicity, and excellent charge separation characteristics. Nickel is considered a co-component in the ZnS base to improve hydrogen evolution efficiency, because nickel sulfide has a narrow band gap. Field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis was used to observe particle size and shape. As the sulfur ratio increased, the particle size increased, and relatively uniform particle sizes were obtained at the 2:2 molar ratio of NiZn:S. X-ray diffractometer analysis showed the formation of ZnO crystals at low sulfur contents in the NiZnS photocatalysts. Among the various NiZnS compositions, the NiZn:S ratio of 2:2 resulted in the highest hydrogen production rate (1541.5 μmol/g/h) with stable reproducibility. UV-vis spectroscopy was used to analyze light absorbance, and the band gap changed with different sulfur contents due to the oxygen vacancies in ZnO, as identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscope. High amounts of thiourea used to introduce the sulfur increased the particle sizes and blocked sunlight coming to NiZnS surfaces, thereby degrading photocatalytic performance. Therefore, changing the sulfur content when fabricating the NiZnS composite photocatalysts affected the crystalline structures and band characteristics of the materials, and it finally resulted in improved light absorption, charge separation, and the hydrogen production rate of the photocatalysts.

A novel hazelnutt bagasse based activated carbon as sodium borohydride methanolysis and electrooxidation catalyst

In this study, activated carbon is produced from defatted hazelnut bagasse at different activation conditions. The catalytic activities of activated carbons are evaluated for NaBH4 methanolysis and electrooxidation. These materials are characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, FTIR, SEM-EDS and XPS and results show that these materials are prepared successfully. N2 adsorption-desorption results reveal that activated carbon (FH3-500) has the highest BET surface area as 548 m2/g, total pore volume as 0.367 cm3/g and micropore volume as 0.205 cm3/g. On the orher hand, as a result of hydrogen production studies, FH3-500 activated carbon catalyst has the highest initial hydrogen production rate compared to other materials. At 50 °C, this metal-free activated carbon catalyst has a high initial hydrogen production rate of 13591.20 mL/min.gcat, which is higher than literature values. Sodium borohydride electrooxidation measurements reveal that FH2-500 also has the highest electrocatalytic activity and stability. Hazelnut pulp-based activated carbons are firstly used as a metal-free catalyst in the methanolysis and electrooxidation of sodium borohydride, and its catalytic activity is good as a metal-free catalyst. The results show that the hazelnut pulp-based activated carbon catalyst is promising as a metal-free catalyst for the methanolysis and electrooxidation of sodium borohydride.

Reducing dielectric confinement effect in ionic covalent organic nanosheets to promote the visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution

Ultra-thin two-dimensional (2D) organic semiconductors are promising candidates for photocatalysts because of the short charge diffusion pathway and favorable exposure of active sites plus the versatile architecture. Nonetheless, the inherent dielectric confinement of 2D materials will induce a strong exciton effect hampering the charge separation. Herein, we demonstrated an effective way to reduce the dielectric confinement effect of 2D ionic covalent organic nanosheets (iCONs) by tailoring the functional group via molecular engineering. Three ultra-thin CONs with different functional groups and the same ionic moieties were synthesized through Schiff base condensation between ionic amino monomer triaminoguanidinium chloride (TG) and aldehyde linkers. The integration of the hydroxyl group was found to significantly increase the dielectric constant by enhancing the polarizability of ionic moieties, and thus reduced the dielectric confinement and the corresponding exciton binding energy (Eb). The champion hydroxyl-functional iCON exhibited promoted exciton dissociation and in turn a high photocatalytic hydrogen production rate under visible-light irradiation. This work provided insights into the rationalization of the dielectric confinement effect of low-dimensional photocatalysts.

Photocatalytic Properties of ZnO:Al/MAPbI3/Fe2O3 Heterostructure: First-Principles Calculations.

We report on theoretical investigations of a methylammonium lead halide perovskite system loaded with iron oxide and aluminum zinc oxide (ZnO:Al/MAPbI3/Fe2O3) as a potential photocatalyst. When excited with visible light, this heterostructure is demonstrated to achieve a high hydrogen production yield via a z-scheme photocatalysis mechanism. The Fe2O3: MAPbI3 heterojunction plays the role of an electron donor, favoring the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and the ZnO:Al compound acts as a shield against ions, preventing the surface degradation of MAPbI3 during the reaction, hence improving the charge transfer in the electrolyte. Moreover, our findings indicate that the ZnO:Al/MAPbI3 heterostructure effectively enhances electrons/holes separation and reduces their recombination, which drastically improves the photocatalytic activity. Based on our calculations, our heterostructure yields a high hydrogen production rate, estimated to be 265.05 μmol/g and 362.99 μmol/g, respectively, for a neutral pH and an acidic pH of 5. These theoretical yield values are very promising and provide interesting inputs for the development of stable halide perovskites known for their superlative photocatalytic properties.

Sulfur vacancy and CdS phase transition synergistically boosting one-dimensional CdS/Cu2S/SiO2 hollow tube for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Constructing an efficient photoelectron transfer route to improve carrier separation efficiency is crucial for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. In this work, CdS/Cu2S/SiO2 heterostructure with one-dimensional hollow tube morphology was designed by the solvothermal method using CuO/SiO2 hollow tube as carrier. The hexagonal phase CdS and sulfur vacancies were adjusted simultaneously by the reduction strategy of NaBH4 aqueous solution. CdS/CuS/SiO2 with cubic phase CdS was synthesized in the absence of NaBH4 aqueous solution. CdS/Cu2S/SiO2 was characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, SPV and so on. The results showed that hexagonal CdS and sulfur vacancies benefited the separation of photo-generated carriers. As a consequence, the CdS/Cu2S/SiO2-10 composite exhibited a high photocatalytic hydrogen production rate (1196.98 μmol/g/h), and its performance almost 7.18 times than that of CdS/CuS/SiO2. Moreover, CdS/Cu2S/SiO2-10 showed an excellent cyclic stability. This was attributed to the strong electron interaction of CdS/Cu2S/SiO2 heterostructure and the sulfur vacancy acted as an electron trap, enhancing the separation of photo-induced electrons and holes.

Boosting photoelectron transport in Zn0.5Cd0.5S/Sn3O4 heterostructure through close interface contact for enhancing photocatalytic H2 generation and degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride

Reasonable design and construction of heterogeneous photocatalysts with close interface contact are considered as the effective strategy to realize the application of highly efficient solar for hydrogen evolution and pollutant degradation. Here, a novel Zn0.5Cd0.5S nanospheres/Sn3O4 nanosheets (ZCS/SO) heterostructure photocatalyst was firstly synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method, where Zn0.5Cd0.5S nanospheres in-situ grew on the surfaces of Sn3O4 nanosheets derived by ultrasonicating Sn3O4 nanoflowers. The synthesized ZCS/SO heterostructure exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity for H2 production and tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) degradation than pristine Sn3O4 and Zn0.5Cd0.5S. The optimal ZCS/SO-10 performed the highest rate of hydrogen production of 7.19 mmol·g−1·h−1, which was 112.3 and 3.6 times those of Sn3O4 and Zn0.5Cd0.5S, respectively. And the AQY of ZCS/SO-10 for H2 evolution was up to 16.6 % at λ = 420 nm. Moreover, ZCS/SO-10 displayed the highest TCH degradation rate (0.0484 min−1), which were 228.3 and 1.9 times those of Sn3O4 (0.000212 min−1) and Zn0.5Cd0.5S (0.0249 min−1). Such excellent dual-functional photocatalytic performance of ZCS/SO heterostructure could be attributed to the synergistic effect between Sn3O4 and Zn0.5Cd0.5S as well as the formation of heterogenous interfaces with close contacts, which greatly increased specific surface area, enlarged spectral response range, enhanced hydrophilicity and accelerated photogenerated charge transfer, resulting in the improvement of photogenerated charge yield and photoreaction efficiency. Detailed electron transport mechanisms and possible degradation paths of TCH were also proposed. This work provides a feasible strategy for the preparation of transition metal sulfide photocatalysts efficiently utilizing solar energy to realize the production of clean energy and water environmental remediation.

Ternary nanocomposites of CdS/WO3/g-C3N4 for hydrogen production.

The sustainable rise in global warming and the consumption of fossil fuels considerably contribute to energy and environmental issues. To address these issues, semiconductor heterostructures can be used to generate clean energy sources as alternative energy sources and to reduce environmental impacts. Herein, we report the synthesis of a ternary semiconductor of the CdS/WO3/g-C3N4 (i.e. C-CNW) nanostructured composite for hydrogen production and dye degradation under visible-light irradiation. The structural properties of the prepared materials were studied using a series of investigational analyses. The 3C-CNW nanostructure photocatalyst exhibited faster malachite green (MG) dye photodegradation within 105 min and the highest hydrogen production rate is 868.23 μmol g-1 h-1 under visible light illumination. Moreover, the photocatalytic hydrogen production of the 3C-CNW nanostructure photocatalyst with various scavengers was analyzed. Its higher photocatalytic activity is ascribed to the Z-scheme mechanism, which induces rapid diffusion of photoinduced charges within the ternary photocatalyst with its optical bandgap. This proposed strategy is useful to improve photocatalysts that play a role in mitigating energy and environmental issues.