Rational design W-doped Co-ZIF-9 based Co3S4 composite photocatalyst for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution

Herein, a novel W doped Co3S4 composite photocatalyst was successfully prepared by MOF (metal organic framework), Co-ZIF-9, as a nanoscaled template via a hydrothermal treatment. Efficient heteroatom doping emerged a large number of joints in Co3S4–WSX, providing multitudinous active sites for hydrogen catalysis. Moreover, due to these unmatched structural and compositional features, the optimized Co3S4–WSX hybrid without introducing any noble metal cocatalysts in the catalytic system also displayed a brilliant performance for hydrogen evolution and prominent stability under long-term visible light irradiation. In particular, the sample of Co3S4–WSX(0.6)), the amount of hydrogen evolution in the five-hour continuous light could reach up to 428.3 μmol, which was increased by 38 times compared with Co-ZIF-9. In addition, some necessary characterization such as XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, UV-vis diffuse spectroscopy, photoelectrochemistry and PL etc. were further examed to support related results and put forward the possible reaction mechanism.