CuS, NiS as co-catalyst for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over TiO2

• The preparation process of photocatalyst is simple and efficient.
• Dual co-catalysts MS can improve the efficiency of TiO2 photocatalytic activity.
• CuS–NiS/TiO2 is low-priced and stable.

TiO2 photocatalysts loaded CuS and NiS as co-catalyst were prepared by hydrothermal approach and characterized by XRD, UV–visible DRS, BET, XPS, SEM and TEM. When TiO2 was loaded MS as co-catalyst, it showed higher photocatalytic activities for splitting water into hydrogen in methanol aqueous solution under 500 W Xe lamp. Among the photocatalysts with various compositions, the maximum evolution of H2 obtained from 5 wt% CuS–5 wt% NiS–TiO2 sample was about 800 μmol h−1, which was increased up to about twenty-eight times than that of TiO2 alone. It was proven that CuS, NiS can act as effective dual co-catalysts to enhance the photocatalytic H2 production activity of TiO2.