2D CuS/CdS porous hierarchical heterostructures for efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion

Solar driven water splitting is a mild and clear H 2 generation process, but low efficiency renders it far away from application. Heterostructure construction provides a promising solution; however, constructing a well-defined, efficient, and low-cost heterostructure is still a challenge but of great importance. Here, we report a hierarchical heterostructures composed by CuS/CdS 2D nanosheets, which was synthesized by using a facile in-situ cation-exchange method. The unique properties of intimate interfaces and widened-and-shorted charge transfer paths for CuS/CdS 2D heterostructures synergistically improve charge transfer and separation. Besides, the enhanced light absorption caused by localized surface plasmon resonance of CuS provides more electrons to attend the reaction of H + reduction into H 2 . Owing to those merits endowed by CuS/CdS heterostructures, the activity of photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction (HER) was significantly boosted with optimized H 2 generation rate of 21.5 mmol g −1  h −1 which exceeds that of pristine CdS by more than 13 folds.