Molybdenum Sulfide Quantum Dots Decorated on TiO<sub>2</sub> for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution
Tianyang Qiu, Lu Wang, Boye Zhou, Yanjun Zhu, Zhuang Chen, Qi Liu, Qing Shen, Yujie Xiong, Yong Zhou, Zhigang Zou
Abstract
Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been identified as an active non-noble-metal-based cocatalyst for photocatalytic water splitting. Here, a TiO2 nanoplate/amorphous MoS2 quantum dot (a-MoS2) composite was developed via in situ sulfuration of MoO3/TiO2. Due to intimate chemical bonding instead of electrostatic adsorption between TiO2 and MoO3, effective transfer of electrons from TiO2 to a-MoS2 is achieved. Additionally, a-MoS2 with an outstanding electron conveying ability can function as an electron collector and catalytic sites. As a result, the obtained a-MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposite achieved an average yield of H2 up to 371 μmol·g–1·h–1 when the content of the cocatalyst was 1.5 wt %, which is 309 and 79 times those of bare TiO2 and trigonally coordinated MoS2/TiO2, respectively. The highest yield rate of H2 up to 880.3 μmol·g–1·h–1 was obtained over a-MoS2/TiO2. This work may provide a wider perspective on the preparation of a low-cost cocatalyst with high conversion efficiency, to replace other commonly used MoS2-based cocatalysts to solve the energy crisis.