Title
Construction of Novel S/CdS type II heterojunction for photocatalytic H2 production under visible light: the intrinsic positive role of elementary α-S
Author
Meiyu Zhang, Haili Lin, Jing Cao, Xiaomin Guo, Shifu Chen
Year
2017
Journal
Chemical Engineering Journal
Abstract
Traditional view points that the photocorrosion product sulfur clusters have negative effect on the activity of CdS system. Differently, in this paper, little amount of crystalline elementary α-sulfur (α-S) nanoparticles were loaded on the surface of CdS nanorods and resulted in enhanced photocatalytic H2 production activity under visible light (λ>420 nm). The photocatalytic H2 production over 10% S/CdS composite was 8.14 mmol and further rose to 30.02 mmol in the presence of K2PtCl6 after 3 h irradiation. In the novel S/CdS system, largely improved separation efficiency of photoexcited charges were achieved through the heterojuction interface role between α-S nanoparticles and CdS nanorods. The matching type II energy band structure ensures that α-S could quickly trapped electrons from the host CdS nanorods for reducing H+ to produce H2. After 10 cycles experiment, S/CdS still kept excellent photocatalytic H2 production activity. This study clearly demonstrates the intrinsic promoting effect of α-S in CdS photocatalyst even in other metal sulfide systems for enhancing photocatalytic H2 production activity under visible light.
Instrument
FP-8300
Keywords
Fluorescence, Photoluminescence, Nanostructures, Materials