Efficient Visible Light Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Composed of Non-noble Metal Nitride (Ni3N) Cocatalyst and Zn0.5Cd0.5S Solid Solution

I n recent years, many effective photocatalysts have been developed to solve the problem of environmental pollution and clean energy shortage. In this paper, non-noble metal cocatalyst Ni 3 N nanoparticles supported Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S(ZCS) nanorods(Ni 3 N/ZCS) composites were successfully synthesized by ultrasonic method. The hydrogen production efficiencies of the photocatalysts were tested under visible light, which was found that when the loading of Ni 3 N was 2% of the mass of ZCS, and the Ni 3 N/ZCS composite had the best hydrogen evolution performance, which could reach 70.3 mmol·h −1 ·g −1 . In addition, the quantum efficiency under 420 nm monochromatic light irradiation was 27.2%. Through different characterization analyses, such as X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra(DRS), a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed, providing some reference value for non-precious metals as cocatalysts.