MoS2/CdS Nanosheets-on-Nanorod Heterostructure for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic H2 Generation under Visible Light Irradiation

Semiconductor-based photocatalytic H-2 generation as a direct approach of converting solar energy to fuel is attractive for tackling the global energy and environmental issues but still suffers from low efficiency. Here, we report a MoS2/CdS nanohybrid as a noble-metal-free efficient visible-light driven photocatalyst, which has the unique nanosheets-on-nanorod heterostructure with partially crystalline MoS2 nanosheets intimately but discretely growing on single-crystalline CdS nanorod. This heterostructure not only facilitates the charge separation and transfer owing to the formed heterojunction, shorter radial transfer path, and fewer defects in single-crystalline nanorod, thus effectively reducing the charge recombination, but also provides plenty of active sites for hydrogen evolution reaction due to partially crystalline structure of MoS2 as well as enough room for hole extraction. As a result, the MoS2/CdS nanosheets-on-nanorod exhibits a state-of-the-art H-2 evolution rate of 49.80 mmol g(-1) h(-1) and an apparent quantum yield of 41.37% at 420 nm, which is the advanced performance among all MoS2/CdS composites and CdS/noble metal photocatalysts. These findings will open opportunities for developing low-cost efficient photocatalysts for water splitting.