Cu2MoS4/CdS heterostructure photocatalyst to achieve highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Photocatalytic water splitting has attracted great attention as one of the most promising strategies for hydrogen production from solar energy. However, the existing photocatalysts are very inefficient in the water splitting process, and it is often necessary to introduce co-catalysts to improve the catalytic efficiency. In this paper, we introduced Cu₂MoS₄ co-catalyst to construct heterostructure using CdS nanorods as the carrier to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of water splitting process. Nano-Cu₂MoS₄, as a ternary transition metal sulfide with suitable band-gap width, is often used as a co-catalyst to broaden the light absorption range of catalyst materials. Based on the above analysis, the band-gap width of the constructed Cu₂MoS₄/CdS catalyst is reduced from 2.43 eV of CdS to 2.39 eV, and the heterostructure of Cu₂MoS₄/CdS catalyst material can significantly improve the electron migration ability. As a result, under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm), the photocatalytic efficiency of 5 % Cu₂MoS₄/CdS is as high as 24.51 mmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹, 18.6 times that of pure CdS (1.32 mmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹), showing extremely high hydrogen production efficiency of water splitting.