Minutely dispersed ruthenium in tremella-like N-doped carbon for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production by CdS quantum dots. Issue 19 (15th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xie, Jianhui; Li, Yijun; Nie, Denggen; Wang, Leiyu; Chen, Jing; Li, Bing; He, Jian-Bo; Guo, Zhenguo; Lau, Tai-Chu
• Is Part Of: Inorganic chemistry frontiers. Volume 9:Issue 19(2022)
• Page Start: 4999
• Page End: 5007
• Publication Date: 2022-08-15
• Subjects: Chemistry, Inorganic -- Periodicals; 546.05
• DOI: 10.1039/d2qi01259f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-1553

Abstract

Abstract : The employment of Ru/NC effectively retards the recombination of charge carriers by the storage and consumption of photo-excited electrons, achieving a significantly improved activity for H2 evolution, which is 21 times higher than that of bare CdS QDs. Abstract : Semiconductors are usually employed to construct photocatalysts for hydrogen production, but bare semiconductors often suffer from a high recombination rate of charge carriers, resulting in low activity for proton reduction. Herein, CdS quantum dots (QDs) were anchored onto a tremella-like N-doped carbon (NC) support with trace ruthenium dispersed, to store and consume photo-excited electrons. The Ru/NC cocatalyst significantly enhances the interfacial transfer of electrons and facilitates proton reduction, leading to a decrease in the photoinduced charge recombination. The optimal Ru/NC/CdS-5 catalyst has a low Ru loading of 0.59 wt%, and it exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity with an H2 evolution rate of up to 73.6 mmol g −1 h −1, which is 21 times higher than that of bare CdS QDs (3.38 mmol g −1 h −1 ). The apparent quantum yield (AQY) of Ru/NC/CdS-5 under the same experimental conditions was found to be 3.6% under irradiation at 420 nm. The catalytic recycling test of Ru/NC/CdS-5 demonstrates its excellent stability. This work provides insight into the enhancement of the activity of semiconductors by dispersing a trace noble metal in a porous carbon support as a cocatalyst for proton reduction.