Visible-light-driven hydrogen production with extremely high quantum efficiency on Pt–PdS/CdS photocatalyst

To efficiently convert solar energy into chemical energy by artificial photosynthesis, we need to develop visible-light-responsive photocatalysts with a high quantum efficiency (QE). Here we report that an artificial photocatalyst (Pt–PdS/CdS) can achieve a QE up to 93% in photocatalytic H2 production in the presence of sacrificial reagents under visible light irradiation, and is very stable under the photocatalytic reaction conditions. The extremely high QE could be achieved by loading as low as 0.30 wt% of Pt and 0.13 wt% of PdS as cocatalysts on CdS.

Graphical abstractAn artificial photocatalyst, Pt–PdS/CdS with the Pt and PdS, respectively acting as reduction and oxidation cocatalysts, can achieve quantum efficiency up to 93% in photocatalytic H2 production from Na2S–Na2SO3 aqueous solution under visible light irradiation.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (52 K)Download as PowerPoint slide