Efficient Visible Light Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Composed of Non-noble Metal Nitride (Ni₃N) Cocatalyst and Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S Solid Solution

Abstract

In recent years, many effective photocatalysts have been developed to solve the problem of environmental pollution and clean energy shortage. In this paper, non-noble metal cocatalyst Ni₃N nanoparticles supported Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S(ZCS) nanorods(Ni₃N/ZCS) composites were successfully synthesized by ultrasonic method. The hydrogen production efficiencies of the photocatalysts were tested under visible light, which was found that when the loading of Ni₃N was 2% of the mass of ZCS, and the Ni₃N/ZCS composite had the best hydrogen evolution performance, which could reach 70.3 mmol·h⁻¹·g⁻¹. In addition, the quantum efficiency under 420 nm monochromatic light irradiation was 27.2%. Through different characterization analyses, such as X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra(DRS), a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed, providing some reference value for non-precious metals as cocatalysts.

Keywords

Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S / Non-noble metal nitride / Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

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