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Nano Research 2023, 16(1): 352-359 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4825-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 02 September 2022

Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production via interfacial engineering over a Z-scheme core/shell heterojunction

Show Author's Information Bing Luo1,  Jinghua Li2,  Wei Wang1,  Chaoqian Ai2,  Haihan Zhang1,  Yuxin Zhao1( ),  Dengwei Jing2( )
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
International Research Center for Renewable Energy & State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Keywords:
photocatalysis, heterojunction, hydrogen production, interfacial engineering, noble metal free
Topics:
Hydrogen fuelsPhotocatalysis
Cite this article:
Luo B, Li J, Wang W, et al. Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production via interfacial engineering over a Z-scheme core/shell heterojunction. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 352-359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4825-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Designing high efficacy photocatalysts is a promising way to improve solar fuel production efficiency. In this work, we prepared a core/shell composite of loose ZnCr layered double hydroxide nanosheets modified CdS nanorods for efficient visible light driven photocatalytic hydrogen production. The highest hydrogen production rate achieved 425.8 μmol·h−1 without adding any noble metal cocatalyst under the visible light stimulus, which is 22.4 times that of 1 wt.% Pt-modified CdS. The corresponding apparent quantum yield is 13.9% at 420 nm. It is revealed that the synergistic actions of the interfacial redox shuttle of Cr3+/Crδ+ and the interfacial electric field enable the efficient separation of photoinduced charge carriers between two components via a Z-scheme energy band configuration. Meanwhile, with the hydrogen evolution contribution of Zn2+, a remarkable improvement in photocatalytic performance was achieved in contrast to bare CdS. This work provides an effective methodology to construct highly efficient and economically viable photocatalysts for solar H2 production and mechanistic study.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production via interfacial engineering over a Z-scheme core/shell heterojunction

Show Author's information Bing Luo1, Jinghua Li2, Wei Wang1, Chaoqian Ai2, Haihan Zhang1, Yuxin Zhao1( ), Dengwei Jing2( )
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
International Research Center for Renewable Energy & State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Abstract

Designing high efficacy photocatalysts is a promising way to improve solar fuel production efficiency. In this work, we prepared a core/shell composite of loose ZnCr layered double hydroxide nanosheets modified CdS nanorods for efficient visible light driven photocatalytic hydrogen production. The highest hydrogen production rate achieved 425.8 μmol·h−1 without adding any noble metal cocatalyst under the visible light stimulus, which is 22.4 times that of 1 wt.% Pt-modified CdS. The corresponding apparent quantum yield is 13.9% at 420 nm. It is revealed that the synergistic actions of the interfacial redox shuttle of Cr3+/Crδ+ and the interfacial electric field enable the efficient separation of photoinduced charge carriers between two components via a Z-scheme energy band configuration. Meanwhile, with the hydrogen evolution contribution of Zn2+, a remarkable improvement in photocatalytic performance was achieved in contrast to bare CdS. This work provides an effective methodology to construct highly efficient and economically viable photocatalysts for solar H2 production and mechanistic study.

Keywords: photocatalysis, heterojunction, hydrogen production, interfacial engineering, noble metal free

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 28 June 2022
Revised: 14 July 2022
Accepted: 26 July 2022
Published: 02 September 2022
Issue date: January 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFB1502000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos, 62074123 and 52106270), the PetroChina Innovation Foundation (No. 2019D-5007-0410), the Young Talent Support Plan of Xi'an Jiaotong University (No. 7121191202), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (No. 2021JQ-040), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2020M683472).

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