Improved hydrogen production performance of an S-scheme Nb 2 O 5 /La 2 O 3 photocatalyst

Addressing the intricate challenge of simultaneously improving the separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs and enhancing redox potentials to produce hydrogen fuel demands the rational design of S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts. Herein, we used a hydrothermal process to integrate Nb O nanorods and La O nanosheets to design an Nb O /La O S-scheme system for photocatalytic hydrogen production under simulated sunlight illumination. Notably, the optimal hydrogen production performance of Nb O /La O (the molar ratio of Nb O to La O is 0.4% and denoted as 0.4NbO-LaO) reached 2175 μmol h g , which is 14.5 and 15.9 times superior in comparison with those of pure Nb O and La O , respectively. In addition, repeated experiments verify the strong stability of the 0.4NbO-LaO photocatalyst. The S-scheme mechanism, verified by the XPS method, plays a crucial role in producing hydrogen with a significantly higher yield than pure Nb O and La O . This design approach offers an innovative avenue to widen the scope of S-scheme photocatalysts for solar fuel production.