A novel Bi2S3 nanowire @ TiO2 nanorod heterogeneous nanostructure for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation

• A novel Bi2S3 nanowires/TiO2 nanorod arrays nanostructure was assembled firstly.
• The prepared photoanode exhibits an excellent PEC hydrogen generation activity.
• The growth mechanism of such a heterogeneous nanostructure is proposed firstly.

In this paper, we demonstrate a novel heterogeneous nanostructure by grafting the Bi2S3 nanowires (NWs) on TiO2 nanorod arrays (NRs) and the prepared films as photoanodes show an excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen generation performance. The hydrogen evolution rate is 35.97 μmol cm−2 h−1 at a potential of 0.676 V vs. RHE (−0.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl) under visible light illumination. Importantly, the growth mechanism of such a heterogeneous nanostructure is put forward firstly and the intrinsic nature of Bi2S3 crystal structure is the main reason of the growth orientation. It is potential for the versatile preparation method to apply in the synthesis of other Bi2S3 based hybrid films.

A novel Bi2S3 nanowire @ TiO2 nanorod heterogeneous nanostructure was synthesized and showed an excellent photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation performance.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide