One-step solvothermal synthesis of MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

The present communication reports on a facile one-step solvothermal synthesis of highly crystallized MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposites for the first time. The TEM image shows the generation of a large amount of TiO2 nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 5-8 nm. The photocurrent measurement suggests that loading a certain amount of MoS2 can effectively improve separation of photogenerated carries. Cyclic voltammograms measurements reveal that TiO2 modified with 1.0 wt% MoS2 can reduce hydrogen reduction overpotential, thereby leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity. Photocatalytic H-2 evolution test suggests that 1.0 wt% MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposites show superior photocatalytic activity, and the H-2 production rate achieves 119.5 mu mol h(-1) g(-1) and is about 19 times higher than that of TiO2 alone, which could be attributed to the short diffusion distance in TiO2 nanoparticles, efficient interfacial electron transfer from TiO2 nanoparticles to MoS2 surface, and reduced hydrogen reduction overpotential. Furthermore, the MoS2/TiO2 photocatalysts are stabile during the photocatalytic H-2 evolution test.