A special coupling strategy: Cu₂MoS₄ as a large-sized co-catalyst for promoting photocatalytic hydrogen production...

The photocatalytic hydrogen production performance of semiconductor materials can be improved by co-catalyst modification. In most of the studies, the size of the co-catalyst is relatively small compared to the primary catalyst. However, in this study, we employed a novel strategy by synthesizing a relatively large-sized Cu₂MoS₄ as the co-catalyst and in situ loading smaller-sized Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S onto Cu₂MoS₄, verifying that Cu₂MoS₄ enhances the photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency of Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S. It can be observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the lateral size of 2D Cu₂MoS₄ is at least 50 times larger than the Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S nanoparticle particle size. In addition, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations have demonstrated that the active site for hydrogen production in the composite is located in Cu₂MoS₄. The large-sized of Cu₂MoS₄ not only provides more active sites but also broadens the electron transport channel, which is conducive to promoting the transfer of photogenerated electrons from Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S. This work enriches the study of large-sized materials as co-catalyst and provides a strategy for the construction of composite catalysts.