TY - JOUR
T1 - Macroporous ZnO/ZnS/CdS composite spheres as efficient and stable photocatalysts for solar-driven hydrogen generation
AU - Zhang, Runlin
AU - Xie, Jiwei
AU - Wang, Chao
AU - Liu, Jing
AU - Zheng, Xianfeng
AU - Li, Yu
AU - Yang, Xiaoyu
AU - Wang, Hong En
AU - Su, Bao Lian
N1 - Funding Information:
B. L. Su acknowledges the Chinese Central Government for an “Expert of the State” position in the Program of the “Thousand Talents.” H. E. Wang and Y. Li acknowledge the Hubei Provincial Department of Education for the “Chutian Scholar” program. H. E. Wang also thanks China Scholarship Council (CSC) for supporting as a Visiting Scholar at University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. This work is supported by Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT_15R52), the National Key Research Program of China (2016YFA0202602), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51302204), and International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2015DFE52870).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2017/4/26
Y1 - 2017/4/26
N2 - Solar-driven hydrogen (H2) generation utilizing photocatalysts has received extensive attention because of its potential to mitigate the global energy crisis and environmental problem. The implementation of efficient H2 production strongly relies on stable, active, and low-cost photocatalysts. In this work, we report the designed synthesis of macroporous ZnO/ZnS/CdS composite spheres as a highly active photocatalyst for H2 production via solar-driven water splitting. The composite spheres were synthesized by a facile solvothermal reaction paired with controllable ion-exchange processes. The resulting material exhibits superior photocatalytic activity, delivering a high H2 production rate of ~11.37 mmol h−1 g−1 under light illumination (250–780 nm, with an ultraviolet light intensity of 34 mW cm−2 and visible light intensity of 158 mW cm−2). Such performance enhancement can be mainly ascribed to the synergic effects of the composite structure: (1) formation of coherent ZnO/CdS and ZnS/CdS heterojunctions at nanoscale, facilitating charge separation of photoinduced electron/hole pairs, (2) highly accessible inner surface of the meso/macroporous ZnO/ZnS/CdS composites for rapid mass transfer of electrolyte, and (3) enhanced visible light scattering capability induced by their large particle size.
AB - Solar-driven hydrogen (H2) generation utilizing photocatalysts has received extensive attention because of its potential to mitigate the global energy crisis and environmental problem. The implementation of efficient H2 production strongly relies on stable, active, and low-cost photocatalysts. In this work, we report the designed synthesis of macroporous ZnO/ZnS/CdS composite spheres as a highly active photocatalyst for H2 production via solar-driven water splitting. The composite spheres were synthesized by a facile solvothermal reaction paired with controllable ion-exchange processes. The resulting material exhibits superior photocatalytic activity, delivering a high H2 production rate of ~11.37 mmol h−1 g−1 under light illumination (250–780 nm, with an ultraviolet light intensity of 34 mW cm−2 and visible light intensity of 158 mW cm−2). Such performance enhancement can be mainly ascribed to the synergic effects of the composite structure: (1) formation of coherent ZnO/CdS and ZnS/CdS heterojunctions at nanoscale, facilitating charge separation of photoinduced electron/hole pairs, (2) highly accessible inner surface of the meso/macroporous ZnO/ZnS/CdS composites for rapid mass transfer of electrolyte, and (3) enhanced visible light scattering capability induced by their large particle size.
KW - photocatalytic activity
KW - inductively couple plasma atomic spectroscopy
KW - diethylene glycol
KW - composite sphere
KW - visible light intensity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018275208&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10853-017-1130-6
DO - 10.1007/s10853-017-1130-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018275208
SN - 0022-2461
VL - 52
SP - 11124
EP - 11134
JO - Journal of Materials Science
JF - Journal of Materials Science
IS - 19
ER -