A Versatile Strategy for Shish-Kebab-like Multi-heterostructured Chalcogenides and Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

A series of multi-heterostructured metal chalcogenides (CdS-Te, NiS/CdS-Te, and MoS2/CdS-Te) with a surprising shish-kebab-like structure have been synthesized via a one-step microwave-assisted pyrolysis of dithiocarbamate precursors in ethylene glycol. Subsequently, CdS-Te composites were exploited as a self-sacrificial template to craft various CdS-Te@(Pt, Pd) multi-heterostructures. Highly uniform dispersion and intimate interactions between CdS and multicomponent cocatalysts, together with improved separation of photogenerated carriers due to the presence of Te nanotubes (NTs) and trace CdTe, enable CdS-based heterostructured photocatalysts to exhibit greatly enhanced efficiency and stability in the photocatalytic production of H2. Thorough morphological characterizations revealed that the growth of metal sulfide/Te heterostructures originates from the growth of Te tubes, which is likely governed by diffusion-limited depletion of the Te precursor and the dissolution–crystallization process of Te seeds followed by the formation of metal sulfide kebabs.