Photocatalysts with hollow structures have drawn great interest owing to their high specific surface area, which can enhance the photocatalytic performance. Herein, we designed the hollow cubic Cu2–x S@Ni–Mo–S nanocomposites by vulcanizing from the Cu2O template and loading the Ni–Mo–S lamellas. The Cu2–x S@Ni–Mo–S composites greatly improved the photocatalytic hydrogen performance. Among them, Cu2–x S–NiMo-5 achieved the optimal photocatalytic rate of 1326.07 μmol/g h, which is approximately 3.85 times higher than that of hollow Cu2–x S (344 μmol/g h) and had good stability for 16 h. The enhanced photocatalytic property was attributed to the metallic behavior of bimetallic Ni–Mo–S lamellas and the LSPR (localized surface plasmon resonance) effect of Cu2–x S. The bimetallic Ni–Mo–S can effectively capture the photogenerated electrons and quickly transfer-diffuse to produce H2. Meanwhile, the hollow Cu2–x S not only provided many more active sites to take part in the reaction but also introduced the LSPR effect to increase the solar utilization. This work provides valuable insights into the synergistic effect of using non-precious metal co-catalysts and the LSPR materials to assist in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Introducing photothermal effect to promote the photocatalytic H2 rate is a good strategy and gradually gain attention. In this work, series of ultrathin Bi2Se3/CdS nanocomposite were prepared by hydrothermal method...

Incorporation of a low content of Co into the structure of the amorphous nickel−iron−molybdate cocatalyst is found to dramatically enhance the photoelectrochemical water splitting performance of BiVO 4 at low bias potentials. After being activated via a cyclic voltammetry-related in situ activation process, the photocurrent of the amorphous cocatalyst-modified BiVO 4 at 1.23 V RHE was further improved to 5.47 mA/cm 2 under AM 1.5G (100 mW/cm 2 ) illumination. Compared to pure BiVO 4 , the activated composite BiVO 4 photoanode exhibits a greatly enhanced interfacial charge injection efficiency in the whole potential range and displays a low onset potential of 0.28 V RHE , which delivers the photoanode an applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) of 1.78% at 0.65 V RHE . During the in situ activation process, a significant loss of Mo cations accompanied by an incorporation of phosphate ions was revealed, which suggests that a rapid surface reconstruction process was triggered in the surface-loaded amorphous cocatalyst. In addition to the surface reconstruction, the oxidation state of Ni ions and the density of oxygen vacancies in the amorphous cocatalyst were also found to be increased. The combined effect of incorporation of Co and surface reconstruction is believed to induce a rational adjustment of the electronic structure of the amorphous cocatalyst, which forms dense active sites and ultimately enhances the photoelectrochemical water splitting performance of BiVO 4 in the whole potential range.