Enhanced light harvesting and electron-hole separation for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over Cu7S4-enwrapped Cu2O nanocubes

P-type Cu2O is an advantageous photocatalyst as the appropriate bandgap structure and low-cost. However, poor photocatalytic and instability of such promising material is still a great challenge. Here the core-shell Cu7S4-coated Cu2O nanocubes (Cu2O/Cu7S4 NCs) were successfully synthesized by solution method coupled with anion exchange, and were firstly employed to hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The resultant integrated structure of Cu2O/Cu7S4 NCs exhibited apparent improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity compared with Cu2O photocatalyst. Particularly, Cu2O/Cu7S4 NCs had a high hydrogen production rate of 1689.00 μmol g−1 h−1 under full spectra irradiation with additive of Na2SO3, which was higher than that of Cu2O NCs with a factor of 1.71 times. Excellent synergistic effect of Cu2O and Cu7S4 can be responsible for the improved hydrogen evolution properties, namely, the presence of Cu7S4 with localized surface plasma resonance (LSPR) can promote the photogenerated electrons transfer from the Cu2O surface, prolong the photogenerated holes lifetime, accelerate the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, and ameliorate the photoelectric properties of semiconductors. The in situ formed multifunctional Cu7S4 layer offers a promising avenue to design photocathodes rationally for photocatalytic water reduction.