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S‐Scheme Heterojunction TiO 2 /CdS Nanocomposite Nanofiber as H 2 ‐Production Photocatalyst
Author(s) -
Ge Haonan,
Xu Feiyan,
Cheng Bei,
Yu Jiaguo,
Ho Wingkei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201901486
Subject(s) - x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , photocatalysis , heterojunction , materials science , nanocomposite , electrospinning , hydrogen production , nanostructure , chemical engineering , water splitting , electron transfer , nanotechnology , photochemistry , hydrogen , catalysis , optoelectronics , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , engineering , polymer
One‐dimensional (1D) nanostructured photocatalyst is a promising candidate for hydrogen (H 2 ) generation, which can be used to deal with the energy crisis. Herein, novel 1D TiO 2 /CdS well‐hybridized nanofibers (NFs) were synthesized via in situ electrospinning method. These 1D hybrid NFs showed a high H 2 ‐production rate of 2.32 mmol h −1 g −1 with an apparent quantum efficiency of 10.14 %, which was 35‐fold higher than that of pristine TiO 2 NFs. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis and density functional theory calculation implied that the electrons transferred from CdS to TiO 2 upon hybridization and created an internal electric field (IEF) pointing from CdS to TiO 2 . This IEF drove the photoexcited electrons in TiO 2 to transfer toward CdS upon light irradiation as revealed by in situ irradiated XPS analysis, suggesting that a step‐scheme (S‐scheme) heterojunction was formed in the TiO 2 /CdS nanohybrids and greatly promoted the separation of electron‐hole pairs to foster efficient H 2 photogeneration. The significant enhancement of photocatalytic activity was also benefited from the easy transfer for electrons in the 1D well‐distributed nanostructure of nanohybrids. This work presents a method for in situ preparing well‐distributed 1D NFs with high photocatalytic activity for H 2 production via the S‐scheme pathways.