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Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of sheet-shaped Co2P grown on carbon cloth (sheet-shaped Co2P-CC) through a facile route. Electrochemical measurements indicated that sheet-shaped Co2P-CC with a loading of 0.6 mg cm−2 Co2P (denoted Co2P-CC-0.6) exhibits exceptional electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with an overpotential of 94 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 80 mV decade−1 in 1 M KOH. Similarly, sheet-shaped Co2P-CC-0.6 was also found to be an excellent electrocatalyst for the HER in 0.5 M H2SO4 and in 0.5 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS), with overpotentials of 95 and 231 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, respectively. Sheet-shaped Co2P has a large surface area, meaning that it can provide a relatively large number of active sites on its surface, and CC is an highly conductive substrate that, when used in conjunction with Co2P, can enhance the conductivity of the electrocatalyst. These outstanding results show that sheet-shaped Co2P-CC could be an excellent candidate for a highly efficient electrocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that both catalytic efficiency and stability are the two important parameters of photocatalysts for visible-light-driven hydrogen production reactions. However, light-driven hydrogen evolution based applications still suffer from sluggish reaction kinetics due to the lack of high-performance photocatalysts. In this paper, we successfully synthesized a ternary porous CdS/WO 3 /TiO 2 photocatalyst with high efficiency and stability via two-stage approach. The as-prepared samples are characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDS, TEM, XPS, and UV–Vis, respectively, which illustrated that the CdS and WO 3 moieties are in-situ formed inside the porous TiO 2 . Particularly, the photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) evolution rate of such ternary 8% CdS/WO 3 /TiO 2 (molar ration of CdS:WO 3 :TiO 2  = 8:8:100) photocatalyst ranges up to 2106 μmol h −1  g −1 under visible-light irradiation, which is higher than that of pure TiO 2 and other binary (CdS/TiO 2 and WO 3 /TiO 2 ) porous photocatalysts. The superior H 2 evolution efficiency can be attributed to the coexistence of CdS and WO 3 in porous TiO 2 which can promote the interfacial charge transfer and separation as well as extend the light absorption up to the visible range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we report a successful synthesis of porous TiO 2 monoliths decorated with unique nanoplate, nanoprism, and nanopyramid-shaped CdSe particles through a mild selenylation of CdO embedded inside porous TiO 2 monoliths via a hydrothermal method in a very controlled manner. Compared with pure TiO 2 , as-synthesized CdSe/TiO 2 photocatalyst not only enhances light absorption but also leads to a highly efficient charge-carrier separation. Particularly, the nanoplate-shaped 7% CdSe/TiO 2 photocatalyst (molar percentages of CdSe to TiO 2 is 7:100) exhibits an exceptional hydrogen evolution rate up to 3650 μmol h −1 g −1 without resorting to any noble-metal co-catalysts under visible-light irradiation owing to synergistic effects envisaged by a rational material design. Our results may provide a useful strategy to develop a highly-efficient visible-light-driven hydrogen production system via water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient production of hydrogen through visible-light-driven water splitting mechanism using semiconductor-based composites has been identified as a promising strategy for converting light into clean H 2 fuel. However, researchers are facing lots of challenges such as light absorption and electron-hole pair recombination and so on. Here, new sheet-shaped MoS 2 and pyramid-shaped CdS in-situ co-grown on porous TiO 2 photocatalysts (MoS 2 CdS TiO 2 ) are successfully obtained via mild sulfuration of MoO 3 and CdO coexisted inside porous TiO 2 monolith by a hydrothermal route. The scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results exhibit that the MoS 2 CdS TiO 2 composites have average pore size about 500 nm. The 3%MoS 2 10%CdS TiO 2 demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity and high stability for a hydrogen production with a high H 2 -generation rate of 4146 μmol h −1 g −1 under visible light irradiation even without noble-metal co-catalysts. The super photocatalytic performance of the visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution is predominantly attributed to the synergistic effect. The conduction band of MoS 2 facilitates in transporting excited electrons from visible-light on CdS to the porous TiO 2 for catalytic hydrogen production, and holes to MoS 2 for inhibiting the photocorrosion of CdS, respectively, leading to enhancing the efficient separation of electrons and holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]