Anti-Stoke effect induced enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

Photocatalytic hydrogen production via solar energy is considered one of the most strategic ways to produce renewable energy. However, expensive Pt is normally used as the cocatalyst during photocatalysis, which prevents commercialization. Therefore, extensive research has been performed to seek abundant and low-cost alternative catalysts. In this work, MoS2 quantum dots (QDs) synthesized by a hydrothermal method are incorporated with graphitic carbon nitride to form a heterostructure for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. MoS2 QDs/g-C3N4 heterostructure containing 5% and 10% MoS2 QDs exhibited a high hydrogen production of 140 and 152 mu molh(-1)g(-1), respectively, demonstrating the potential of MoS2 as an effective economic cocatalyst. Detailed investigations indicate that incorporating MoS2 QDs with carbon nitride to form heterostructure reduces the bandgap, suppresses the recombination, and enhances electron kinetic energy resulting from the anti-Stoke effect, thus leading to better performance for hydrogen evolution.