MoS2 supported on hydrogenated TiO2 heterostructure film as photocathode for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production.

The substitution of noble metal platinum catalyst is one of the important research contents for sustainable development and is also the key to the practical application of photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production. In this work, we loaded the 1T-2H mixed phase MoS 2 on the hydrogenated anatase/rutile heterophase TiO 2 (A-H-RTNA) by hydrothermal method to prepare a new MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA electrode material. The prepared material exhibited higher carrier density, lower PL intensity and higher conductivity than Pt/A-H-RTNA because 1T-MoS 2 has more active sites and lower charge transfer resistance than Pt. With the bias voltage of −0.4 V, the optimized 16MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA as photocathode shows the largest PEC hydrogen production rate of 1840 mmol m−2 h−1, which is 2.9 and 2.2 times higher than those of A-H-RTNA (625 mmol m−2 h−1) and Pt/A-H-RTNA (848 mmol m−2 h−1), respectively. We innovatively used the prepared 16MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA film as counter electrode instead of Pt electrode to construct a PEC system without any noble-metal. The result demonstrates that the noble-metal-free MoS 2 loaded on TiO 2 electrode as counter electrode has 75% PEC activity of noble metal Pt electrode. This study develops a PEC method for hydrogen evolution, which no longer depends on precious metal platinum as cathode. A new MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA electrode with 2 times higher hydrogen production rate than Pt/A-H-RTNA was prepared by loading MoS 2 on the hydrogenated TiO 2 heterostructure film. The prepared MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA film was used as photocathode instead of Pt electrode to construct an innovative and efficient PEC system without any noble-metal. Image 1 • MoS 2 is loaded on hydrogenated anatase/rutile TiO 2 heterophase structure (A-H-RTNA). • MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA has low charge transfer resistance for photoelectrochemical (PEC) reaction. • MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA as photocathode has 2 times higher PEC hydrogen production rate than Pt/A-H-RTNA. • MoS 2 /A-H-RTNA film can be used as photocathode instead of Pt electrode. • An innovative and efficient PEC system without any noble metal is constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]