Identification of the Charge Transfer Channel in Cobalt Encapsulated Hollow Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Matrix@CdS Heterostructure for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract Water splitting to H 2 by photocatalysis remains an effective strategy to alleviate the energy crisis. Unfortunately, single‐component photocatalyst still suffers from sluggish reaction kinetics. In this work, a noble‐metal free photocatalytic system of nitrogen‐doped carbon@Co embedded in carbon nanotubes (NC@Co‐NCT)/cadmium sulfide (CdS) is fabricated by coupling CdS nanorods with the metal–organic framework‐derived Co encapsulated nitrogen‐doped carbon (NC) material. The optimal photocatalytic activity of NC@Co‐NCT/CdS is determined to be 3.8 mmol h −1 g −1 , which is ≈ 5.8 times of CdS. By combining the experimental evidences and density functional theory calculations, a novel photoelectron transfer channel in the heterojunction interfaces is revealed, expediting the migration and separation of photo‐induced charge carriers of CdS. Moreover, the presence of Co nanoclusters can act as the active sites, boosting the H 2 evolution reaction. This study can present a new avenue to design advanced photocatalysts with high‐efficiency electrons and holes separation.