Nickels/CdS photocatalyst prepared by flowerlike Ni/Ni(OH)2 precursor for efficiently photocatalytic H2 evolution

•The nickels/CdS is prepared from a composite by a sample photocatalytic reaction.•The composite is CdS and flowerlike Ni/Ni(OH)2.•The photocatalytic activity is even higher than CdS loaded with 1 wt% Pt.•The flowerlike superstructures were broken due to the reduction of Ni(OH)2.

Nickels/CdS photocatalyst was prepared by a simple photocatalytic reaction of CdS and flowerlike Ni/Ni(OH)2 nanocomposite. The photocatalyst shows effectively photocatalytic H2 production activity, and reaches to the maximum rate of 373.5 μmol h−1 when the mass ratio of CdS and flowerlike Ni/Ni(OH)2 is 2, even higher than the one of CdS loaded with 1 wt% Pt. Characterization results (FESEM, TG, FT-IR, XPS, etc.) indicate that the effective photocatalytic H2-production activity was predominantly attributed to the porous flowerlike superstructures, in which CdS could be well fixed. Thus, CdS could contact fully with flowerlike Ni/Ni(OH)2. Ni is an excellent cocatalyst, which can transfer electrons efficiently. Furthermore, Ni2+ of Ni(OH)2 were effectively reduced to Ni. These nickels could also act as cocatalyst to promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated electrons. Therefore, the flowerlike superstructures was gradually broken during the photocatalytic progress because of Ni(OH)2 reduction, while resulted in effective photocatalytic H2 production activities.

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