Glucose-assisted synthesize 1D/2D nearly vertical CdS/MoS2 heterostructures for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a promising non-precious-metal cocatalyst to replace scarcity and cost Pt, but still suffers from less active sites and poor electrical transport due to the unoptimized geometrical configuration of MoS2 on the semiconductor surface. Here, two different morphological and structural CdS/MoS2 heterostructures were successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal reaction with glucose-assisted or not. With the help of glucose, the MoS2 nanosheets can nearly vertical stand on the CdS nanowires, which do not have the characteristic stacked layer structure of MoS2. This unique configuration leads to a high exposure of the active edge sites and increases charges separation and transfer rate. As expected, the 1D/2D nearly vertical CdS/MoS2 heterostructures exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity and good durability even after being reused five times. Simultaneously, an apparent quantum yield can be reached to 60.3% at 420 nm, which was the advanced performance among all CdS/MoS2 composites. This work will provide an intriguing and effective approach on design of low-cost and efficient photocatalysts for enhanced HER performance. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.