High-efficiency photocatalytic hydrogen production with Zn-VIA (VIA=O, S, Se, Te) enhanced by lamellar Cu2MoS4 under visible light

Cu 2 MoS 4 became a novel active alternative material to noble metal co-catalysts, which can effectively promote photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. To investigate the effect of Cu 2 MoS 4 on the photocatalytic performance of Zn-VIA compounds, ZnO, ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe were composited with Cu 2 MoS 4 to construct the photocatalysts, and we analyzed the four catalysts for the crystal structure, microscopic morphology, photoelectronic properties, and hydrogen evolution performance. Comparing the four different photocatalysts, the composite of ZnSe and Cu 2 MoS 4 has the highest photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency, and the hydrogen evolution rate of the optimal ratio of ZSeC-20 reaches about 2617 μmol/g/h, which is about 46 times higher than that of pure ZnSe. It is attributed to the loading of Cu 2 MoS 4 to build a heterogeneous structure, which reduces the photogenerated electron and hole recombination rate, which enhances the photocatalytic water splitting hydrogen evolution rate.