Photochemical preparation of atomically dispersed nickel on cadmium sulfide for superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Up to now, hydrogen production with a low-cost and efficient system driven by sunlight still remains a great challenge. Herein, atomically dispersed Ni modified CdS nanorods (NRs) hybrid photocatalyst (Ni-1/CdS) with Ni loading up to 2.85 wt% was prepared by a facile, rapid and scalable photochemical method. Under optimal conditions, the highest rate for H-2 evolution of Ni-1/CdS photocatalyst is 630.1 mmol g(-1) h(-1) under visible light, which is one of the most robust photocatalytic HER systems based on CdS currently. Furthermore, the Ni-1/CdS catalyst exhibits good stability and durability for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and outstanding photo catalytic activity under sunlight and aerobic conditions, indicating the great practical value of present reaction system. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the introduction of single Ni atom on the CdS can improve the hydrogen binding energy and electronic properties, thus greatly boosting the photocatalytic H-2 production activity.