Highly efficient hydrogen evolution catalysis based on MoS2/CdS/TiO2 porous composites

Efficient production of hydrogen through visible-light-driven water splitting mechanism using semiconductor-based composites has been identified as a promising strategy for converting light into clean H 2 fuel. However, researchers are facing lots of challenges such as light absorption and electron-hole pair recombination and so on. Here, new sheet-shaped MoS 2 and pyramid-shaped CdS in-situ co-grown on porous TiO 2 photocatalysts (MoS 2 CdS TiO 2 ) are successfully obtained via mild sulfuration of MoO 3 and CdO coexisted inside porous TiO 2 monolith by a hydrothermal route. The scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results exhibit that the MoS 2 CdS TiO 2 composites have average pore size about 500 nm. The 3%MoS 2 10%CdS TiO 2 demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity and high stability for a hydrogen production with a high H 2 -generation rate of 4146 μmol h −1  g −1 under visible light irradiation even without noble-metal co-catalysts. The super photocatalytic performance of the visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution is predominantly attributed to the synergistic effect . The conduction band of MoS 2 facilitates in transporting excited electrons from visible-light on CdS to the porous TiO 2 for catalytic hydrogen production, and holes to MoS 2 for inhibiting the photocorrosion of CdS, respectively, leading to enhancing the efficient separation of electrons and holes.