Construction of ternary CdxMo1−xSe quantum dots for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

The development of novel photocatalyst is an important issue for improving the photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency. Herein, novel aqueous ternary Cd x Mo 1− x Se quantum dots (QDs) are prepared with five ratios ( x  = 0, 0.5, 0.67, 0.75, 1) by modulating the metal content. Experimental results show that the doping of Mo promotes the photoinduced electrons transfer and decreases the photoinduced electron–hole pairs recombination. Compared with the CdSe QDs, Cd 0.75 Mo 0.25 Se QDs, Cd 0.5 Mo 0.5 Se QDs and MoSe 2 QDs, Cd 0.67 Mo 0.33 Se QDs exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity, and the amount of H 2 production comes up to 911.1 μmol in 7 h. Meanwhile, the Cd 0.67 Mo 0.33 Se QDs display substantially high stability in recycling test, which facilitates the utilization of ternary QDs in the photocatalytic hydrogen production application.