Hydrothermal growth of two dimensional hierarchical MoS₂ nanospheres on one dimensional CdS nanorods for high performance and stable visible photocatalytic H₂ evolution

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The visible photocatalytic H<SUB>2</SUB> production from water splitting considered as a clean and renewable energy source could solve the problem of greenhouse gas emission from fossil fuels. Despite tremendous efforts, the development of cost effective, highly efficient and more stable visible photocatalysts for splitting of water remains a great challenge. Here, we report the heteronanostructures consisting of hierarchical MoS<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres grown on 1D CdS nanorods referred to as CdS-MoS<SUB>2</SUB> HNSs as a high performance visible photocatalyst for H<SUB>2</SUB> evolution. The as-synthesized CdS-MoS<SUB>2</SUB> HNSs exhibited ∼11 fold increment of H<SUB>2</SUB> evolution rate when compared to pure CdS nanorods. This remarkable enhanced hydrogen evolution performance can be assigned to the positive synergetic effect from heteronanostructures formed between the CdS and MoS<SUB>2</SUB> components which assist as an electron sink and source for abundant active edge sites and in turn increases the charge separation. This study presents a low-cost visible photocatalyst for solar energy conversion to achieve efficient H<SUB>2</SUB>.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Hydrothermal synthesis was used for the fabrication of CdS-MoS<SUB>2</SUB> HNSs. </LI> <LI> Visible photocatalytic H<SUB>2</SUB> evolution studies were performed on CdS-MoS<SUB>2</SUB> HNSs. </LI> <LI> Enhanced H<SUB>2</SUB> evolution rate was observed for CdS-MoS<SUB>2</SUB> HNSs when compared to CdS NRs. </LI> <LI> MoS<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres were successfully utilized as cocatalyst for H<SUB>2</SUB> evolution reaction. </LI> <LI> Charge recombination was suppressed in the CdS NRs by the concept of HNSs. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>