A game-changing design of low-cost, large-size porous cocatalysts decorated by ultra-small photocatalysts for highly efficient hydrogen evolution

Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting has received considerable attention in recent years. The bottle-neck issue for hydrogen production efficiency is the relative slow charge separation and efficient hydrogen evolution. Currently, the major strategy for developing catalysts is to anchor small noble-metal cocatalysts onto relatively large photocatalysts. In this study, extremely small photocatalysts of TiO2 quantum dots were loaded onto the low-cost micro-sized cocatalysts of porous NiO/NiS2 nanosheets, promoting the rapid charge separation of photogenerated electrons from small-sized photocatalysts to large-sized cocatalysts. The size of cocatalysts is three orders of magnitude larger than that of photocatalysts. The hydrogen production of designed catalysts is similar to 16 times higher than that of pure TiO2 photocatalysts, clearly demonstrating the critical role of large-sized porous cocatalysts. Our game-changing strategy provides a distinctive approach to design new kinds of photocatalysts with rapid charge separation and highly efficient hydrogen evolution.

Automated summary

Novel photocatalysts combining TiO2 quantum dots and NiO/NiS2 nanosheets were developed to enhance hydrogen production efficiency through rapid charge separation; the designed catalysts showed a 16-fold increase in hydrogen production compared to pure TiO2 photocatalysts; this innovative approach provides a new strategy for designing highly efficient photocatalysts with rapid charge separation.