Synergistic effect of a noble metal free MoS2 co-catalyst and a ternary Bi2S3/MoS2/P25 heterojunction for enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

Semiconductor heterojunction has been regarded as one of the most promising strategies to produce efficient photocatalysts, which construction can be beneficial to accelerate the separation of photo-induced charge carriers for boosting photocatalytic H2 production. Herein, noble-metal-free MoS2 was adopted as a co-catalyst to construct a ternary Bi2S3/MoS2/P25 heterojunction for boosting electrons transfer and further evaluating for H2 production from water under solar irradiation. Due to the synergistic effects of the co-catalyst and heterojunction in the Bi2S3/MoS2/P25 system, the optimal MoS2/P25/Bi2S3 sample provides the excellent photocatalytic activity of H2 evolution rate (13.0 mmol g−1 h−1), which can be ascribed to the positive synergetic effects of improved charge transfer and efficient separation of the light-induced charge carriers of MoS2/P25/Bi2S3 arose from the dual-channel charges transfer path. By taking full advantage of ternary heterojunction and co-catalyst for promoting H2 production, this work guarantees insights into the low-cost, large-scale production of commercial TiO2-based ternary composite materials applied in solar photocatalytic hydrogen production.