Synthesis of Bi2S3 nanowires and their photocatalytic performance for hydrogen production

Abstract

Photocatalytic decomposition of water is a potential way to obtain hydrogen directly from solar energy. Of all the potential semiconductors, Bi2S3has attracted much attention due to its high utilization of sunlight. In this paper, Bi2S3nanowires with different morphologies and crystallinities were synthesized by a modified composite molten salt (M-CMS) method over different reaction times. Through the systematic characterization of the samples, it was found that Bi2S3samples with a longer synthesis times tend to form nanowires with a uniform morphology, clean surface, good crystallinity and lower photogenerated carrier recombination rate, and they can achieve efficient utilization of solar energy and high catalytic hydrogen production efficiency. The Bi2S3nanowires synthesized over 72 h had the best hydrogen production of 392 [Formula: see text]mol/g within 2 h, and they still maintained an efficiency of 89% after four cycles.