Journal Home > Volume 9 , Issue 8
Nano Research 2016, 9(8): 2284-2293 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1115-9
Research Article | Issue | Published: 13 June 2016

Ultrathin Co(Ni)-doped MoS2 nanosheets as catalytic promoters enabling efficient solar hydrogen production

Show Author's Information Xiaoyan Ma1,  Jinquan Li1,  Changhua An1( ),  Juan Feng1,  Yuhua Chi1,  Junxue Liu1,  Jun Zhang1( ),  Yugang Sun2( )
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil ProcessingCollege of Chemical Engineeringand College of ScienceChina University of PetroleumQingdao266580China
Department of ChemistryTemple UniversityPhiladelphiaPennsylvania19122USA
Keywords:
MoS2, photocatalysis, water splitting, two-dimensional material
Cite this article:
Ma X, Li J, An C, et al. Ultrathin Co(Ni)-doped MoS2 nanosheets as catalytic promoters enabling efficient solar hydrogen production. Nano Research, 2016, 9(8): 2284-2293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1115-9
Download citation
EndNote(RIS)
BibTeX

694

Views

26

Downloads

Citations

79

Crossref

N/A

WoS

76

Scopus

9

CSCD

Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The design of efficient artificial photosynthetic systems that harvest solar energy to drive the hydrogen evolution reaction via water reduction is of great importance from both the theoretical and practical viewpoints. Integrating appropriate co-catalyst promoters with strong light absorbing materials represents an ideal strategy to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar energy in hydrogen production. Herein, we report, for the first time, the synthesis of a class of unique hybrid structures consisting of ultrathin Co(Ni)-doped MoS2 nanosheets (co-catalyst promoter) intimately grown on semiconductor CdS nanorods (light absorber). The as-synthesized one-dimensional CdS@doped-MoS2 heterostructures exhibited very high photocatalytic activity (with a quantum yield of 17.3%) and stability towards H2 evolution from the photoreduction of water. Theoretical calculations revealed that Ni doping can increase the number of uncoordinated atoms at the edge sites of MoS2 nanosheets to promote electron transfer across the CdS/MoS2 interfaces as well as hydrogen reduction, leading to an efficient H2 evolution reaction.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Ultrathin Co(Ni)-doped MoS2 nanosheets as catalytic promoters enabling efficient solar hydrogen production

Show Author's information Xiaoyan Ma1, Jinquan Li1, Changhua An1( ), Juan Feng1, Yuhua Chi1, Junxue Liu1, Jun Zhang1( ), Yugang Sun2( )
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil ProcessingCollege of Chemical Engineeringand College of ScienceChina University of PetroleumQingdao266580China
Department of ChemistryTemple UniversityPhiladelphiaPennsylvania19122USA

Abstract

The design of efficient artificial photosynthetic systems that harvest solar energy to drive the hydrogen evolution reaction via water reduction is of great importance from both the theoretical and practical viewpoints. Integrating appropriate co-catalyst promoters with strong light absorbing materials represents an ideal strategy to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar energy in hydrogen production. Herein, we report, for the first time, the synthesis of a class of unique hybrid structures consisting of ultrathin Co(Ni)-doped MoS2 nanosheets (co-catalyst promoter) intimately grown on semiconductor CdS nanorods (light absorber). The as-synthesized one-dimensional CdS@doped-MoS2 heterostructures exhibited very high photocatalytic activity (with a quantum yield of 17.3%) and stability towards H2 evolution from the photoreduction of water. Theoretical calculations revealed that Ni doping can increase the number of uncoordinated atoms at the edge sites of MoS2 nanosheets to promote electron transfer across the CdS/MoS2 interfaces as well as hydrogen reduction, leading to an efficient H2 evolution reaction.

Keywords: MoS2, photocatalysis, water splitting, two-dimensional material

References(37)

1

Lewis, N. S.; Nocera, D. G. Powering the planet: Chemical challenges in solar energy utilization. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2006, 103, 15729–15735.
DOI Google Scholar
2

Ran, J. R.; Zhang, J.; Yu, J. G.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Earth-abundant cocatalysts for semiconductor-based photocatalytic water splitting. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 7787–7812.
DOI Google Scholar
3

Osterloh, F. E. Inorganic nanostructures for photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic water splitting. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2013, 42, 2294–2320.
DOI Google Scholar
4

Hochbaum, A. I.; Yang, P. D. Semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 527–546.
DOI Google Scholar
5

Maeda, K.; Teramura, K.; Saito, N.; Inoue, Y.; Domen, K. Improvement of photocatalytic activity of (Ga1-xZnx)(N1-xOx) solid solution for overall water splitting by co-loading Cr and another transition metal. J. Catal. 2006, 243, 303–308.
DOI Google Scholar
6

Teramura, K.; Maeda, K.; Saito, T.; Takata, T.; Saito, N.; Inoue, Y.; Domen, K. Characterization of ruthenium oxide nanocluster as a cocatalyst with (Ga1-xZnx)(N1-xOx) for photocatalytic overall water splitting. J. Phys. Chem. B 2006, 110, 4500–4501.
DOI Google Scholar
7

Kato, H.; Kudo, A. Water splitting into H2 and O2 on alkali tantalate photocatalysts ATaO3 (A = Li, Na, and K). J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 4285–4292.
DOI Google Scholar
8

Trasatti, S. Work function, electronegativity, and electrochemical behaviour of metals: Ⅲ. Electrolytic hydrogen evolution in acid solutions. J. Electroanal. Chem. Interfac. Electrochem. 1972, 39, 163–184.
DOI Google Scholar
9

Linsebigler, A. L.; Lu, G. Q.; Yates Jr, J. T. Photocatalysis on TiO2 surfaces: Principles, mechanisms, and selected results. Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 735–758.
DOI Google Scholar
10

Maeda, K.; Teramura, K.; Lu, D. L.; Takata, T.; Saito, N.; Inoue, Y.; Domen, K. Photocatalyst releasing hydrogen from water. Nature 2006, 440, 295.
DOI Google Scholar
11

Ishikawa, A.; Takata, T.; Kondo, J. N.; Hara, M.; Kobayashi, H.; Domen, K. Oxysulfide Sm2Ti2S2O5 as a stable photocatalyst for water oxidation and reduction under visible light irradiation (λ ≤ 650 nm). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 13547–13553.
DOI Google Scholar
12

Kato, H.; Asakura, K.; Kudo, A. Highly efficient water splitting into H2 and O2 over lanthanum-doped NaTaO3 photocatalysts with high crystallinity and surface nanostructure. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 3082–3089.
DOI Google Scholar
13

Ikarashi, K.; Sato, J.; Kobayashi, H.; Saito, N.; Nishiyama, H.; Inoue, Y. Photocatalysis for water decomposition by RuO2-dispersed ZnGa2O4 with d10 configuration. J. Phys. Chem. B 2002, 106, 9048–9053.
DOI Google Scholar
14

Kitano, M.; Takeuchi, M.; Matsuoka, M.; Thomas, J. M.; Anpo, M. Photocatalytic water splitting using Pt-loaded visible light-responsive TiO2 thin film photocatalysts. Catal. Today 2007, 120, 133–138.
DOI Google Scholar
15

Peng, Y.; Shang, L.; Cao, Y. T.; Waterhouse, G. I. N.; Zhou, C.; Bian, T.; Wu, L. Z.; Tung, C. H.; Zhang, T. R. Copper(I) cysteine complexes: Efficient earth-abundant oxidation co-catalysts for visible light-driven photocatalytic H2 production. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 12556–12559.
DOI Google Scholar
16

Feng, J.; Liu, J. X.; Wei, G. J.; Zhang, J.; Wang, S. T.; Wang, Z. J.; An, C. H. Solar-driven Pt modified hollow structured CdS photocatalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution. RSC Adv. 2014, 4, 36665–36670.
DOI Google Scholar
17

Zong, X.; Han, J. F.; Ma, G. J.; Yan, H. J.; Wu, G. P.; Li, C. Photocatalytic H2 evolution on CdS loaded with WS2 as cocatalyst under visible light irradiation. J. Phys. Chem. C 2011, 115, 12202–12208.
DOI Google Scholar
18

Xie, J. F.; Zhang, H.; Li, S.; Wang, R. X.; Sun, X.; Zhou, M.; Zhou, J. F.; Lou, X. W.; Xie, Y. Defect-rich MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets with additional active edge sites for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 5807–5813.
DOI Google Scholar
19

Kibsgaard, J.; Chen, Z. B.; Reinecke, B. N.; Jaramillo, T. F. Engineering the surface structure of MoS2 to preferentially expose active edge sites for electrocatalysis. Nat. Mater. 2012, 11, 963–969.
DOI Google Scholar
20

Lukowski, M. A.; Daniel, A. S.; Meng, F.; Forticaux, A.; Li, L. S.; Jin, S. Enhanced hydrogen evolution catalysis from chemically exfoliated metallic MoS2 nanosheets. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10274–10277.
DOI Google Scholar
21

Chen, Z. B.; Cummins, D.; Reinecke, B. N.; Clark, E.; Sunkara, M. K.; Jaramillo, T. F. Core-shell MoO3-MoS2 nanowires for hydrogen evolution: A functional design for electrocatalytic materials. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 4168–4175.
DOI Google Scholar
22

Wang, T. Y.; Liu, L.; Zhu, Z. W.; Papakonstantinou, P.; Hu, J. B.; Liu, H. Y.; Li, M. X. Enhanced electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction from self-assembled monodispersed molybdenum sulfide nanoparticles on an Au electrode. Energy Environ. Sci. 2013, 6, 625–633.
DOI Google Scholar
23

Hou, Y. D.; Laursen, A. B.; Zhang, J. S.; Zhang, G. G.; Zhu, Y. S.; Wang, X. C.; Dahl, S.; Chorkendorff, I. Layered nanojunctions for hydrogen-evolution catalysis. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 3621–3625.
DOI Google Scholar
24

Meng, F.; Li, J. T.; Cushing, S. K.; Zhi, M. J.; Wu, N. Q. Solar hydrogen generation by nanoscale p-n junction of p-type molybdenum disulfide/n-type nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10286–10289.
DOI Google Scholar
25

Jaramillo, T. F.; Jørgensen, K. P.; Bonde, J.; Nielsen, J. H.; Horch, S.; Chorkendorff, I. Identification of active edge sites for electrochemical H2 evolution from MoS2 nanocatalysts. Science 2007, 317, 100–102.
DOI Google Scholar
26

Chang, Y. H.; Lin, C. T.; Chen, T. Y.; Hsu, C. L.; Lee, Y. H.; Zhang, W. J.; Wei, K. H.; Li, L. J. Highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen production by MoSx grown on graphene-protected 3D Ni foams. Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 756–760.
DOI Google Scholar
27

Benck, J. D.; Chen, Z. B.; Kuritzky, L. Y.; Forman, A. J.; Jaramillo, T. F. Amorphous molybdenum sulfide catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen production: Insights into the origin of their catalytic activity. ACS Catal. 2012, 2, 1916– 1923.
DOI Google Scholar
28

Laursen, A. B.; Vesborg, P. C. K.; Chorkendorff, I. A high-porosity carbon molybdenum sulphide composite with enhanced electrochemical hydrogen evolution and stability. Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 4965–4967.
DOI Google Scholar
29

Karunadasa, H. I.; Montalvo, E.; Sun, Y. J.; Majda, M.; Long, J. R.; Chang, C. J. A molecular MoS2 edge site mimic for catalytic hydrogen generation. Science 2012, 335, 698–702.
DOI Google Scholar
30

Hinnemann, B.; Moses, P. G.; Bonde, J.; Jørgensen, K. P.; Nielsen, J. H.; Horch, S.; Chorkendorff, I.; Nørskov, J. K. Biomimetic hydrogen evolution: MoS2 nanoparticles as catalyst for hydrogen evolution. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 5308–5309.
DOI Google Scholar
31

Topsøe, H.; Clausen, B. S.; Massoth, F. E. Hydrotreating Catalysis; Springer: Berlin Heidelberg, 1996.
DOI
32

Feng, J.; An, C. H.; Dai, L. X.; Liu, J. X.; Wei, G. J.; Bai, S.; Zhang, J.; Xiong, Y. J. Long-term production of H2 over Pt/CdS nanoplates under sunlight illumination. Chem. Eng. J. 2016, 283, 351–357.
DOI Google Scholar
33

Kuc, A.; Zibouche, N.; Heine, T. Influence of quantum confinement on the electronic structure of the transition metal sulfide TS2. Phys. Rev. B 2011, 83, 245213.
DOI Google Scholar
34

Sun, M. Y.; Nelson, A. E.; Adjaye, J. Ab initio DFT study of hydrogen dissociation on MoS2, NiMos, and CoMos: Mechanism, kinetics, and vibrational frequencies. J. Catal. 2005, 233, 411–421.
DOI Google Scholar
35

Jang, J. S.; Joshi, U. A.; Lee, J. S. Solvothermal synthesis of CdS nanowires for photocatalytic hydrogen and electricity production. J. Phys. Chem. C 2007, 111, 13280–13287.
DOI Google Scholar
36

Chen, J.; Wu, X. J.; Yin, L. S.; Li, B.; Hong, X.; Fan, Z. X.; Chen, B.; Xue, C.; Zhang, H. One-pot synthesis of CdS nanocrystals hybridized with single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenide nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Angew. Chem. 2015, 127, 1226–1230.
DOI Google Scholar
37

Xie, J. F.; Zhang, J. J.; Li, S.; Grote, F.; Zhang, X. D.; Zhang, H.; Wang, R. X.; Lei, Y.; Pan, B. C.; Xie, Y. Controllable disorder engineering in oxygen-incorporated MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets for efficient hydrogen evolution. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17881–17888.
DOI Google Scholar
File
nr-9-8-2284_ESM.pdf (2.2 MB)
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 21 February 2016
Revised: 19 April 2016
Accepted: 21 April 2016
Published: 13 June 2016
Issue date: August 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21471160 and 51402362), Huangdao Key Science and Technology Programme (Contract No. 2014-1-50), Shandong Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2014EMQ012), Qingdao Science and Technology Program for Youth (No. 14-2-4-34-jch), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Ministry of Education of China.

Return