Title : Enhanced photo catalytic hydrogen generation using Cu2 Znsns4 nanoparticle decorated Ceo2
Abstract:
The innovative design of sustainable noble-metal-free heterojunctions remains a key challenge for highly efficient and durable photo catalytic H2 production. In this study, it was revealed that the CZTS (Cu2 ZnSnS4 ) nanoparticles may serve as a catalyst and a p-type semiconductor at the low (1.5 wt. %) and high (10 wt. %) loading contents, respectively. Both CZTS cocatalyst and semiconductor could evidently boost the visible-light-driven photo catalytic H2 production over the CeO2.The heterojunction effects between p-type CZTS and n-type CeO2 are speculated to play a more prominent role in dramatically boosting the photo catalytic H2 production than the electron-sink roles of surface CZTS cocatalysts. Impressively, among all the as-fabricated photo catalysts, the high quality 10 wt% CZTS could achieve the highest photo catalytic H2 -production rate of 2930 µmol g-1h-1, which is approximately 59 times higher than that of pristine CeO2 . In cycling experiments, CeO2 -10 wt% CZTS exhibited an acceptable photostability. More importantly, it was further demonstrated that the earth-abundant dual-functional CZTS nanoparticles could markedly facilitate the separation of electron-hole pairs and H2 -evolution kinetics, thus achieving the distinctly boosted photocatalytic H2 generation. This work will provide new insights into the rationally designing environment-friendly CeO2 -based hybrid nano hetero junctions for visible-light-responsive photocatalytic H2 generation through loading of the noble-metal-free bifunctional cocatalysts or semiconductors.
