Research paperLocal coulomb attraction for enhanced H2 evolution stability of metal sulfide photocatalysts

•The hole-attraction Fe2O3/CdS nanorods are achieved successfully via a facile photochemical metal-organic deposition.•The in situ K-edge X-ray absorption near edge (XANES) analysis demonstrates the existence of local Coulomb attraction.•The best sample FCS-15 experts great photocatalytic durability of over 6 days with H2 evolution rate of 20.7 mmol g−1 h−1.•This Coulomb attraction strategy is demonstrated to widely apply for metal sulfides, such as Zn0.5Cd0.5S.•This strategy can control the mobility of charge carriers, indicating a high-active system for overall water splitting.

Cadmiun sulfide (CdS) is considered as a promising semiconductor photocatalyst for its outstanding light absorbance and photoinduced charge separation, but it suffers from severe photocorrosion, mainly due to the sluggish kinetics of holes transfer. In this work, we introduce the strong local Coulomb attraction, which is demonstrated via the in situ K-edge X-ray absorption near edge (XANES) analysis, to accelerate the migration of holes for long-term photocatalytic activity. As a proof-of-concept sample, the hole-attraction Fe2O3/CdS nanorods evidence an outstanding stability of at least 6 days without obvious deactivation, and feature with an excellent H2 evolution rate of 20.7 mmol g−1 h−1. Moreover, this Coulomb attraction strategy can be leveraged to enhance the photocatalytic performance of Zn0.5Cd0.5S, indicating the wide application of the strategy.

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