Controlling Pt co-catalyst loading in a WO3 quantum dot and MoS2 nanosheet composite Z-scheme system for enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution

A solid-state Z-scheme system, with the synergistic integration of the advantages of various narrow-band semiconductors, is considered to be a potential strategy to develop efficient photocatalysts for operation under visible light illumination. However, the charge separation efficiency of these systems has always been reduced by disordered electron transfer between coupling semiconductors. In this work, we constructed a direct Z-scheme system WO3-MoS2-Pt through the loading of WO3 quantum dots onto MoS2 nanosheets and the selective depositing of a Pt co-catalyst onto MoS2. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, etc were used to confirm the successful preparation of the targeted photocatalyst. This photocatalytic system showed high visible-light-driven H2 evolution activity (802.2 μmol · h−1 · g−1) and good photostability. Control experiment and mechanism analysis suggested that the remarkable performance can be attributed to the heterojunction formed WO3 and MoS2 and the vectorial electron transfer (WO3 → MoS2 → Pt) achieved by selectively loading the Pt co-catalyst.