Sustainable synthesis of CeO 2 /CdS-diethylenetriamine composites for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light

Abstract Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is a promising semiconductor material for photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution. However, the serious photocorrosion and low visible-light utilization limit its practical application. In this work, cerium oxide (CeO2) modified inorganic-organic CdS-diethylenetriamine (CeO2/CdS-DETA) composite material with different mass ratios was fabricated by hydrothermal method. Crystal structure, light absorption properties, microstructure, photocatalytic H2 production activity, photocurrent and fluorescence spectra of the composites were investigated. The results exhibited that photocatalytic performance of CeO2/CdS-DETA materials was improved and 7%CeO2/CdS-DETA exhibited excellent catalytic activity (14.84 mmol g-1 h-1) under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 420 nm), which is twice more than that of CdS-DETA. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism was preliminarily discussed. This work not only promotes the development of novel inorganic-organic CdS-DETA-based photocatalytic materials for solar energy utilization but provides sustainable photocatalysts by taking both photocatalytic H2 production and repeated utilization into consideration.