Facile fabrication of FeP/CdS for H2 evolution

A facile synthetic method was used to prepare the composite of FeP/CdS by phosphiding FeCl3/CdS under low temperature in the presence of NaH2PO2. The resulting composites were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). During the photocatalytic H2 evolution reaction (HER), FeP/CdS exhibited excellent catalytic activity under visible light with lactic acid as sacrificial reagent. The H2 evolution rate of 3% FeP/CdS was 21.6 mmol/g/h, which is almost four folders higher than that of Pt/CdS. A mechanism of charge transfer was also proposed according to a series of characterization.