High-efficiency carrier separation heterostructure improve the photocatalytic hydrogen production of sulfide

Loading co-catalyst is one of the essential ways to strengthen the performance of photocatalyst . Here, a novel non-precious metal co-catalyst Ti 2 C/TiO 2 was successfully synthesized and Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S nanoparticle grown on the surface of Ti 2 C/TiO 2 equably. In our work, 0.01 g photocatalysts were used in photocatalytic activity measurement. Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S/Ti 2 C/TiO 2 composite (2 wt% Ti 2 C/TiO 2 ) exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity and the H 2 yield is 32.57 mmol/g −1 /h −1 under visible light irradiation. The photoelectrochemical results reveal that Ti 2 C/TiO 2 could improve the separation of the photo-induced carriers in Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S/Ti 2 C/TiO 2 heterojunction . And DFT calculations demonstrate that the Gibbs free energy of oxygen-terminated Ti 2 C and TiO 2 are much lower than that of Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S. Therefore, the Ti 2 C/TiO 2 has an active impact on improving the H 2 production of Zn 0.5 Cd 0.5 S. This study provides a new way to explore the application of inexpensive co-catalysts on a large scale.