Excellent photoelectrochemical activity of Bi2S3 nanorod/TiO2 nanoplate composites with dominant {001} facets.

In this work, {001} facets exposed TiO 2 nanoplates were loaded with Bi 2 S 3 nanorods. The resulting Bi 2 S 3 /TiO 2 photocatalyst exhibits considerable improvement in photoelectrochemical H 2 generation than pristine TiO 2 nanoplates and Bi 2 S 3 nanorods. The previous research mainly focused on the composite of Bi 2 S 3 nanoparticles with rod-shaped TiO 2 , and utilized the advantage of large surface area of rod-shaped TiO 2 to collect carriers. The advantage of this study is that Bi 2 S 3 is supported on the {001} facets of TiO 2 nanoplates, and the high-energy {001} facets and Bi 2 S 3 are used to construct the heterojunction. The experimental results show that the Bi 2 S 3 /(001)TiO 2 heterojunction has excellent photoelectrochemistry performance, and the photocurrent density of the composite photocatalyst is 20 times larger than that of the original TiO 2 , which is much higher than the 3–4 times of the literature. Experimental results confirm that {001} facets exposed TiO 2 nanoplates are suitable for compositing with Bi 2 S 3 to improve photoelectrochemical performance, which can be ascribed to the photoinduced carriers' synergistic effect between TiO 2 and Bi 2 S 3. Thus, photo-generated electrons shift from the conduction band (CB) of Bi 2 S 3 nanorods to the CB of TiO 2 nanoplates after photo excitation, while photo-generated holes shift from the valence band (VB) of TiO 2 nanoplates to the VB of Bi 2 S 3 nanorods. Here, we demonstrate the significance of semiconductors composites in the improvement of photocatalysts. TiO 2 nanosheets with exposed {001} facets were composited with Bi 2 S 3 nanorods which exhibits excellent photoelectrochemical activity. Image 1 • Bi 2 S 3 nanorods/TiO 2 nanosheets with dominant {001} facets composites were obtained. • The photoelectrochemical activity of the composite is largely enhanced. • There is a carriers transform between the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]