The enhancement of CdS photocatalytic activity for water splitting via anti-photocorrosion by coating Ni2P shell and removing nascent formed oxygen with artificial gill

CdS photocorrosion seriously impeded its application in photocatalysis , especially for water splitting. Here we report new strategies to improve CdS photocorrosion resistance properties significantly by coating Ni 2 P shell and assembling an artificial gill to remove newly formed O 2 from water. Ni 2 P@CdS catalyst can achieve the over-all water splitting under visible light irradiation without addition of any sacrifice reagent and noble metal loading. Compared with CdS itself, the 10Ni 2 P@CdS photocatalyst exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution (251.4   μmol of H 2 in 180   min) with a high AQE (3.89% at 430   nm). This catalyst also presents high photocurrent, low overpotential (−0.32   V vs SCE), and long fluorescence lifetime (16.27   ns) of excited charges. Cd 2+ ions concentration measured by ICP and long term stability results verified the anti-photocorrosion role of Ni 2 P shell on CdS during water splitting reaction. The activity and stability of 10Ni 2 P@CdS is even superior to typical 1Pt@CdS catalyst. Our results confirm CdS can be an active catalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen generation from water under visible irradiation if its stability is enhanced by protection of anti-photocorrosion over-coating shell and removing the nascent formed oxygen from water.