The Zn Vacancy‐Mediated De‐Accumulation Based Process for Hydrogen Production Performance Promotion of 1D Zn─Cd─S Nanorods

Abstract

AbstractDue to their anisotropy, 1D semiconductor nanorod‐based materials have attracted much attention in the process of hydrogen production by solar energy. Nevertheless, the rational design of 1D heterojunction materials and the modulation of photo‐generated electron–hole transfer paths remain a challenge. Herein, a ZnxCd1‐xS@ZnS/MoS2 core–shell nanorod heterojunction is precisely constructed via in situ growth of discontinuous ZnS shell and MoS2 NCs on the Zn─Cd─S nanorods. Among them, the Zn vacancy in the ZnS shell builds the defect level, and the nanoroelded MoS2 builds the electron transport site. The optimized photocatalyst shows significant photocatalytic activity without Platinum as an auxiliary catalyst, mainly due to the new interfacial charge transfer channel constructed by the shell vacancy level, the vertical separation and the de‐accumulation process of photo‐generated electrons and photo‐generated holes. At the same time, spectral analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations fully prove that shortening difference of speed between the photogenerated electron and hole movement process is another key factor to enhance the photocatalytic performance. This study provides a new path for the kinetic design of enhanced carrier density by shortening the carrier retention time of 1D heterojunction photocatalysts with improved photocatalytic performance.