Solar-driven hydrogen production from water using particulate photocatalysts is considered the most economical and effective approach to produce hydrogen fuel with little environmental concern. However, the efficiency of hydrogen production from water in particulate photocatalysis systems is still low. Here, we propose an efficient biphase photocatalytic system composed of integrated photothermal–photocatalytic materials that use charred wood substrates to convert liquid water to water steam, simultaneously splitting hydrogen under light illumination without additional energy. The photothermal–photocatalytic system exhibits biphase interfaces of photothermally-generated steam/photocatalyst/hydrogen, which significantly reduce the interface barrier and drastically lower the transport resistance of the hydrogen gas by nearly two orders of magnitude. In this work, an impressive hydrogen production rate up to 220.74 μmol h−1 cm−2 in the particulate photocatalytic systems has been achieved based on the wood/CoO system, demonstrating that the photothermal–photocatalytic biphase system is cost-effective and greatly advantageous for practical applications. The solar-driven H2 production from water by particulate photocatalysts is an effective approach to produce H2 fuel. Here, the authors propose an integrated photothermal–photocatalytic biphase system, which lowers the reaction barrier and the delivery resistance of the H2, boosting the catalytic H2 evolution rate.

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Boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production from water by photothermally induced biphase systems

Oxygen-facilitated dynamic active-site generation on strained MoS2 during photo-catalytic hydrogen evolution

Benefiting from the high electrochemical surface area brought by the 2D nanosheet structure, MoS2 has received great research attention for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, it has been demonstrated that by constructing a transitional metal sulfide–MoS2 heterostructure, the HER performance of the MoS2-based catalysts can be further improved. It is even possible to obtain bifunctional catalysts for both HER and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to the synergistic effect of the different components in the composite, the electronic effect to enable an efficient electron transfer and appropriate binding energy for the intermediates of the electrocatalytic reactions, and the surface defects on the interface of the heterostructures. Herein, we review the recent progress on the construction of the transitional metal sulfide–MoS2 heterostructure for water splitting based on non-self-supporting and self-supporting catalysts. The surface and interface parameters of the heterostructures are discussed in detail to reveal the key roles of the hybrid structures for energy conversion. We also pay special attention to the theoretical simulations based on first principles to clarify the relationships between the electrochemical performance and structure parameters. Finally, the prospects and challenges of the transition metal sulfide–MoS2 heterostructures for water splitting in the future are proposed to prompt the reasonable design of transition metal sulfide–MoS2 heterostructures for full water splitting.

Interface engineering of transitional metal sulfide–MoS2 heterostructure composites as effective electrocatalysts for water-splitting

Tailoring activation sites of metastable distorted 1T′-phase MoS2 by Ni doping for enhanced hydrogen evolution

The poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) polymer assisted preparation of high-performance inverted perovskite solar cells with efficiency exceeding 22%

The large-scale synthesis of the metallic phase MoS2 (1 T MoS2) is important for enhancing the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, it’s difficult to obtain a high-quality of 1 T MoS2, especially when integrated with other semiconductors for hetero nanomaterials. Herein, a one-step confined template method is proposed to obtain high-quality 1 T MoS2 in the CuS nanoframe (CuS–MoS2–1 T). During the synthesis, a unique porous Cu–Mo-based metal–organic framework (MOF), i.e., NENU-5 template has been adopted and in situ sulfurized, where 1 T MoS2 and CuS have been simultaneously obtained. Interestingly, we find that the confined pores of the CuS nanoframe inhibits the bulk growth of MoS2 to produce high-stability and large-scale 1 T MoS2 (a high concentration of ∼70 %). The obtained nanomaterial exhibits remarkable photocatalytic activity with the hydrogen production rate of approximately 9648.7 μmol g−1 h−1, which is much higher than other various newly developed photocatalysts reported early. This study develops a new strategy via MOF confined template for high-quality 1 T MoS2 production and achieves outstanding performance in the photocatalytic water splitting. This approach may also shed light on other similar confined templates for the praparation of high-quality metastable nanomaterials.

Jiakang Yu

Papers

In-situ growth of high-content 1T phase MoS2 confined in the CuS nanoframe for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution