Efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production over eosin Y-sensitized MoS2

Abstract

MoS₂ is considered as a promising alternative to noble metals for H₂ evolution. In this work, a MoS₂ catalyst was synthesized via a simple and feasible solvothermal process and characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS techniques. Though the thus-obtained MoS₂ was stabilizing agent-free and composed of relatively large agglomerated particles, it shows superior hydrogen production performance under sensitization of eosin Y (EY), significantly different form earlier reports. Under optimized conditions, the hydrogen production rate was high, up to 35 mmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, much higher than those of previous reports. We attribute this to its relatively high surface roughness and the small thin petal-like nanosheets constituting the MoS₂, which result in more active sites for hydrogen evolution. Meanwhile, the obtained MoS₂ shows excellent photostability with the H₂-evolving activity remaining nearly unchanged after 4 cycles.