Regulating charge carrier’s transportation rate via bridging ternary heterojunctions enabling CdS nanorods solar driven hydrogen evolution rate

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>Solar-driven hydrogen generation using single-semiconductor photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution seems to be challenging due to their poor solar to fuel conversion efficiency because of their fast charge carrier recombination. The ternary heterostructure constitutes an advanced approach to suppress the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers and has contributed a new platform for designing highly efficient photocatalytic system. Herein, we fabricated a ternary hetero-junction with ultrathin WS₂-SnS₂ nanosheets and CdS nanorods and the photocatalytic activity is studied. The optimized CdS/SnS₂-WS₂ (6 wt. %) nanostructures are found to be highly stable and exhibited highest hydrogen evolution rate of 232.45 mmol. g^{− 1}.h^{− 1}, which is almost 93 folds higher than that of the pristine CdS nanorods. Also, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations confirm that the favorable band alignment for charge transport and superior catalytic activity of newly fabricated ternary nanostructures makes it a potential candidate for solar driven hydrogen production.</p></div>