Construction of Amorphous CoS/CdS Nanoparticles Heterojunctions for Visible–Light–Driven Photocatalytic H2 Evolution

Due to the poor photocatalytic hydrogen evolution ability of pure CdS, we need to develop a photocatalytic hydrogen evolution catalyst with high activity and no precious metal doping. Therefore, in this article, we used a simple hydrothermal synthesis of CdS nanoparticles, using water as a carrier, loading a small amount of amorphous CoS, by changing the loading ratio of amorphous CoS, synthesized TYPE–II type heterojunction composite catalyst CCS. The successful synthesis of the composite catalyst CCS was verified by XRD, SEM and other characterization methods. UV–vis, PL and other characterization showed that the supported amorphous CoS could significantly improve the photocatalytic activity of CdS, and the photochemical detection also showed that the performance of composite catalyst CCS was better than that of pure CdS. Using Na 2 S and Na 2 SO 3 mixed solution as electron sacrificial agent, the hydrogen production performance of CCS composite catalyst was determined through hydrogen evolution experiment and cyclic stability experiment. It was found that the sacrificial agent had a great promotion effect on the hydrogen production performance of photocatalyst. It was found that the hydrogen production rate of the composite catalyst could reach 2.01 mmol·g −1 ·h −1 , which was 6.3 times of the pure CdS. This study offers a novel approach for the design of amorphous–based nanostructures as efficient hydrogen evolution cocatalysts. Graphic Abstract First, CdS are excited by light, consuming S 2− and SO 3 2− ions in the sacrificial agent, generating a large number of electrons and holes. Due to the energy difference between the conducting band (CB) of CdS and amorphous CoS, the electrons are transferred from the surface of CdS to the conducting band (CB) of amorphous CoS, while the electrons obtained from water and H + in the sacrificial agent are reduced to H 2 . The amorphous CoS is used as the transfer medium of electron acceptor, and the synergistic effect between heterojunctions is used to improve the charge separation efficiency and electron transfer rate. Therefore, the photocatalytic hydrogen production effect of the composite catalyst CCS–7 has been greatly improved.