Highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen generation by immobilizing CdSe nanocrystals on ZnCr-layered double hydroxide nanosheets

• CdSe nanocrystals were immobilized on ZnCr-LDH nanosheets.
• The nanohybrids are mesoporous with enhanced surface areas.
• The nanohybrids display superior visible-light photocatalytic activity in water splitting.

Mesoporous CdSe/ZnCr-LDH nanohybrids were synthesized by mixing the suspensions containing cationic ZnCr-LDH nanosheets and anionic CdSe nanosol. It was revealed that the CdSe nanocrystals were immobilized on the ZnCr-layered double hydroxide 2D nanosheets. The strong electronic coupling between the two components in the formed heterostructured nanohybrids remarkably suppressed the photogenerated electron–hole recombination. The as-prepared nanohybrids displayed significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity. When the CdSe content was 30 wt%, the H2-evolution rate was 2196 μmol h−1·g−1 with a quantum efficiency of 51.3% under visible-light irradiation, which is far superior to that of its parent ZnCr-LDH (18 μmol h−1·g−1). The present findings demonstrate that the self-assembly of CdSe-LDHs is quite effective in synthesizing novel LDHs-based visible-light photocatalyst with high performance in hydrogen evolution from water splitting.

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