Surfactant controlled metal oxide shell layer deposition for enhanced photocatalytic solar hydrogen generation: CdSe/TiO2 nanocomposite a case study

[Display omitted] •Exploring the role of surfactants on nanoscale metal oxide synthesis.•A nonionic surfactant (Polyvinyl pyrrolidone) based TiO2 effectively wrap CdSe.•Cationic and anionic surfactants deform CdSe host or result in agglomerated TiO2.•CdSe/TiO2 composite results in 8 times enhancement in H2 production than CdSe.•Benchmarking TiO2 shell coated CdSe exhibits 23.1 h−1.g−1cat of hydrogen gas. The present work demonstrates the effect of cationic, anionic and nonionic surfactants on synthesizing nanoscale thin TiO2 shell layer deposited onto pre-synthesized CdSe capsule-like nanoparticles. We benchmark a suitable surfactant for synthesizing homogenous, controlled TiO2 post-deposition onto host 1-D CdSe surface without any complex research tools. Also, we examine the inter-dependence material property and photocatalytic performance in solar hydrogen generation. The generic synthesis of surfactant controlled nanoscale deposition route can transfer to a wide range of semiconductor materials where the surface functional property plays a crucial role.