Nanoscale Assembly of CdS/BiVO4 Hybrids for Coupling Selective Fine Chemical Synthesis and Hydrogen Production under Visible Light

Simultaneously utilizing photogenerated electrons and holes in one photocatalytic system to synthesize value-added chemicals and clean hydrogen (H2) energy meets the development requirements of green chemistry. Herein, we report a binary material of CdS/BiVO4 combining one-dimensional (1D) CdS nanorods (NRs) with two-dimensional (2D) BiVO4 nanosheets (NSs) constructed through a facile electrostatic self-assembly procedure for the selectively photocatalytic oxidation of aromatic alcohols integrated with H2 production, which exhibits significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance. Within 2 h, the conversion of aromatic alcohols over CdS/BiVO4-25 was approximately 9-fold and 40-fold higher than that over pure CdS and BiVO4, respectively. The remarkably improved photoactivity of CdS/BiVO4 hybrids is mainly ascribed to the Z-scheme charge separation mechanism in the 1D/2D heterostructure derived from the interface contact between CdS and BiVO4, which not only facilitates the separation and transfer of charge carriers, but also maintains the strong reducibility of photogenerated electrons and strong oxidizability of photogenerated holes. It is anticipated that this work will further stimulate interest in the rational design of 1D/2D Z-scheme heterostructure photocatalysts for the selective fine chemical synthesis integrated with H2 evolution.