Ti3C2 MXene co-catalyst on metal sulfide photo-absorbers for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production

Jingrun Ran, Guoping Gao, Fa-Tang Li, Tian-Yi Ma, Aijun Du and Shi-Zhang Qiao ()
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Jingrun Ran: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide
Guoping Gao: School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Garden Point Campus
Fa-Tang Li: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide
Tian-Yi Ma: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide
Aijun Du: School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Garden Point Campus
Shi-Zhang Qiao: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Scalable and sustainable solar hydrogen production through photocatalytic water splitting requires highly active and stable earth-abundant co-catalysts to replace expensive and rare platinum. Here we employ density functional theory calculations to direct atomic-level exploration, design and fabrication of a MXene material, Ti3C2 nanoparticles, as a highly efficient co-catalyst. Ti3C2 nanoparticles are rationally integrated with cadmium sulfide via a hydrothermal strategy to induce a super high visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 14,342 μmol h−1g−1 and an apparent quantum efficiency of 40.1% at 420 nm. This high performance arises from the favourable Fermi level position, electrical conductivity and hydrogen evolution capacity of Ti3C2 nanoparticles. Furthermore, Ti3C2 nanoparticles also serve as an efficient co-catalyst on ZnS or ZnxCd1−xS. This work demonstrates the potential of earth-abundant MXene family materials to construct numerous high performance and low-cost photocatalysts/photoelectrodes.

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13907

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13907

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