A Versatile Strategy for Shish-Kebab-like Multi-heterostructured Chalcogenides and Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

A series of multi-heterostructured metal chalcogenides (CdS-Te, NiS/CdS-Te, and MoS2/CdS-Te) with a surprising shish-kebab-like structure have been synthesized via a one-step microwave-assisted pyrolysis of dithiocarbamate precursors in ethylene glycol. Subsequently, CdS-Te composites were exploited as a self-sacrificial template to craft various CdS-Te@(Pt, Pd) multi-heterostructures. Highly uniform dispersion and intimate interactions between CdS and multicomponent cocatalysts, together with improved separation of photogenerated carriers due to the presence of Te nanotubes (NTs) and trace CdTe, enable CdS-based heterostructured photocatalysts to exhibit greatly enhanced efficiency and stability in the photocatalytic production of H2. Thorough morphological characterizations revealed that the growth of metal sulfide/Te heterostructures originates from the growth of Te tubes, which is likely governed by diffusion-limited depletion of the Te precursor and the dissolution-crystallization process of Te seeds followed by the formation of metal sulfide kebabs.

Interfacing TiO2(B) Nanofibers with Li4Ti5O12 Towards Highly Reversible and Durable TiO2‐based Anode for Li−Ion Batteries

“…According to the Wulff theorem, [16] to minimize γ TB , TiO 2 (B) nanofibers have prefer-ential (020) crystal growth such that (020) plane has lower exposed surface area than (200) and (001) planes (i. e. A (020) < A (200) , A (001) ). Analogous to our findings, growth of CdS nanoparticles at both ends of Te nanotubes, [18] and growth of Au nanoparticles at both ends of CdSe nanorods, [19] have been recently reported, due to good lattice match between CdS and Te, and similarly between Au and CdSe. Thus, the exposed (020) plane at two ends of the TiO 2 (B) nanofibers should be relatively less stable.…”

Rational design of CdS@ZnO core-shell structure via atomic layer deposition for drastically enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution with excellent photostability

“…Energy crisis and environmental pollution, two very important global issues in these years, have pushed the exploitation of green reproducible energy meaningful and pressing [1][2][3][4][5]. Photocatalytic H 2 evolution from water splitting, which directly converts solar energy into clean chemical energy without pollution, has attracted much attention [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Construction of Infrared‐Light‐Responsive Photoinduced Carriers Driver for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

“…However, its practical applications are hindered by the low solar energy conversion efficiency, and one of the significant reasons is the less‐than‐ideal solar spectral response range 7–12. Though tremendous efforts have been made to broaden the response of photocatalysts from ultraviolet light to visible light region, including ion‐doping, dye‐sensitization, forming solid solution, and so on 13–16. Still, infrared light, more than 50% of the solar light energy, has long been overlooked because its low photon energy can hardly be used to directly activate photocatalysts to trigger chemical reactions 17–19.…”