Accelerated Charge Transfer through Interface Chemical Bonds in MoS₂/TiO₂ for Photocatalytic Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to H₂

Abstract

Solar photocatalytic H 2 production from lignocellulosic biomass has attracted great interest, but it suffers from low photocatalytic efficiency owing to the absence of highly efficient photocatalysts. Herein, we designed and constructed ultrathin MoS 2 -modified porous TiO 2 microspheres (MT) with abundant interface Ti−S bonds as photocatalysts for photocatalytic H 2 generation from lignocellulosic biomass. Owing to the accelerated charge transfer related to Ti−S bonds, as well as the abundant active sites for both H 2 and • OH generation, respectively, related to the high exposed edge of MoS 2 and the large specific surface area of TiO 2 , MT photocatalysts demonstrate good performance in the photocatalytic conversion of α-cellulose and lignocellulosic biomass to H 2 . The highest H 2 generation rate of 849 μmol•g −1 •h −1 and apparent quantum yield of 4.45% at 380 nm was achieved in α-cellulose aqueous solution for the optimized MT photocatalyst. More importantly, lignocellulosic biomass of corncob, rice hull, bamboo, polar wood chip, and wheat straw were successfully converted to H 2 over MT photocatalysts with H 2 generation rate of 10, 19, 36, 29, and 8 μmol•g −1 •h −1 , respectively. This work provides a guiding design approach to develop highly active photocatalysts via interface engineering for solar H 2 production from lignocellulosic biomass.