Vastly improved solar-light induced water splitting catalyzed by few-layer MoS2 on Au nanoparticles utilizing localized surface plasmon resonance

Photocatalytic water splitting with few-layer MoS2 as photocatalysts has been an efficient hydrogen production method in recent years. Previous studies have shown that active edge sites play an important part in the efficiency enhancement. In this work, excellent photocatalytic properties for hydrogen production in water splitting under simulated solar light (with AM1.5G filter) with few-layer MoS2/Au nanoparticle (NPs) hybrid structures have been demonstrated. Few-layer MoS2 fabricated by thermal decomposition shows outstanding photocatalytic activity, as high as 179 mmolg(-1)h(-1), for hydrogen production with Na2S as a sacrificial reagent. The high efficiency is attributed to high surface to volume ratio as well as huge amount of active sites of few-layer MoS2 nanoflakes. Moreover, hydrogen production efficiency was further significantly improved to 285 mmol g(-1) h(-1) by forming few-layer MoS2 on Au NPs with optimized size and spacing utilizing both high surface to volume ratio as well as enhanced near-fields induced by localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR). The work realizes a feasible and easily-recycled hybrid structure for highly efficient hydrogen production.