Issue 19, 2018

Stable 1T-phase MoS2 as an effective electron mediator promoting photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Coupling two semiconductors together to construct a Z-scheme type photocatalytic system is an efficient strategy to solve the serious recombination challenge of photogenerated electrons and holes. In this work, we develop a novel composite photocatalyst by sandwiching metallic 1T-phase MoS2 nanosheets between MoO3 and g-C3N4 (MoO3/1T-MoS2/g-C3N4) for the first time. The metallic 1T-phase MoS2 acts as an efficient electron mediator between MoO3 and g-C3N4 to construct an all-solid-state Z-scheme photocatalytic system, resulting in a highly-efficient spatial charge separation and transfer process. Benefiting from this, the newly developed MoO3/1T-MoS2/g-C3N4 exhibits a drastically enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 513.0 μmol h−1 g−1 under visible light irradiation (>420 nm), which is nearly 12 times higher than that of the pure g-C3N4 (39.5 μmol h−1 g−1), and 3.5 times higher than that of MoO3/g-C3N4 (145.7 μmol h−1 g−1). More importantly, the originally unstable 1T-phase MoS2 becomes very stable in MoO3/1T-MoS2/g-C3N4 because of the sandwich structure where 1T-phase MoS2 is protected by MoO3 and g-C3N4, which endows the photocatalyst with excellent photostability. It is believed that this study will provide new insights into the design of efficient and stable Z-scheme heterostructures for photocatalytic applications.

Graphical abstract: Stable 1T-phase MoS2 as an effective electron mediator promoting photocatalytic hydrogen production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jan 2018
Accepted
12 Apr 2018
First published
12 Apr 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 9292-9303

Stable 1T-phase MoS2 as an effective electron mediator promoting photocatalytic hydrogen production

J. Shi, Y. Zou, D. Ma, Z. Fan, L. Cheng, D. Sun, Z. Wang, C. Niu and L. Wang, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 9292 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR00017D

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