A special coupling strategy: Cu2MoS4 as a large-sized co-catalyst for promoting photocatalytic hydrogen production performance

The photocatalytic hydrogen production performance of semiconductor materials can be improved by co-catalyst modification. In most of the studies, the size of the co-catalyst is relatively small compared to the primary catalyst. However, in this study, we employed a novel strategy by synthesizing a relatively large-sized Cu 2 MoS 4 as the co-catalyst and in situ loading smaller-sized Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S onto Cu 2 MoS 4 , verifying that Cu 2 MoS 4 enhances the photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency of Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S. It can be observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the lateral size of 2D Cu 2 MoS 4 is at least 50 times larger than the Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S nanoparticle particle size. In addition, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations have demonstrated that the active site for hydrogen production in the composite is located in Cu 2 MoS 4 . The large-sized of Cu 2 MoS 4 not only provides more active sites but also broadens the electron transport channel, which is conducive to promoting the transfer of photogenerated electrons from Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S. This work enriches the study of large-sized materials as co-catalyst and provides a strategy for the construction of composite catalysts.