Effective incorporation of Ni dopant into CdS derived from hybrid ZIF for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

In this work, pure and homogeneous Ni incorporated CdS photocatalyst was prepared by vulcanization of ZIF material synthesized from Cd/Ni salt by solvothermal method. The prepared pure CdS photocatalysts by the vulcanization of ZIF material exhibits better catalytic activity due to its larger specific surface area. The introduction of Ni can further improve the hydrogen production activity. The effect of Ni incorporating amount and annealing temperature on the hydrogen production activity of CdS photocatalyst was researched systematically. The photocatalytic activity at 10 % Ni incorporated CdS sample is greatly enhanced after annealing at 700 °C, which is attributed to the effective doping of Ni into the CdS lattice by annealing. The average hydrogen evolution rate is 1644.6 μmol/g/h, which adds up to about 119 times that of normal CdS. The current research provides a simple and effective method for improving the photocatalytic activity of CdS.