Composition dependent activity of Fe1−xPtx decorated ZnCdS nanocrystals for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

In this work, ZnCdS nanoparticles (NPs) were decorated with FePt alloy, forming nanocomposites via ethylene glycol reduction method. The photocatalytic H2 production of the Fe1−xPtx-ZnCdS NPs was studied by changing the composition and weight percentage of Fe1−xPtx alloy in the nanocomposites under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm) irradiation. The results showed that the hydrogen production rate of Fe1−xPtx-ZnCdS NPs had a significant enhancement over the pure ZnCdS (740 μmol g−1 h−1). The activity of the nanocomposites was dependent on the composition of Fe1−xPtx alloy and the highest hydrogen production rate of 2265 μmol g−1 h−1 was achieved by the 0.5 wt% Fe0.3Pt0.7-ZnCdS nanocomposites, which was even better than that of 0.5 wt% Pt-ZnCdS (1626 μmol g−1 h−1) under the same condition. This study highlights the significance of Pt base alloys as new cocatalysts for the development of novel composite photocatalysts.