Cadmium Sulfide/Pyrene Sulfone Polymer Nanoassemblies for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

The design of heterostructures offers a promising route to enhance photocatalytic activity for improved solar-energy conversion efficiency. In this work, an inorganic-organic photocatalytic system based on cadmium sulfide (CdS)-pyrene sulfone polymer (PSP) heterostructures was constructed for exceptional photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE). The prepared CdS-PSP nanohybrids were found to exhibit an optimum production rate of 51.32 mmol h^-1 g^-1, corresponding to 3.11 and 13.9 times that of the pristine PSP and CdS nanoparticles (NPs), respectively. In-situ XPS, steady state, time-resolved and temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements, and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy have been employed to elucidate the electron transfer processes in the composite. The formed Z-scheme heterostructure effectively extends the lifetime of charge carriers while reducing exciton binding energy in the polymer, thereby optimizing carrier utilization efficiency. This work provides useful insights into designing heterostructure with optimized free carrier generation for photocatalysis.