Enhanced Z-scheme visible light photocatalytic hydrogen production over ?-Bi 2 O 3 /CZS heterostructure

Abstract

Depletion of fossil fuels and associated environmental issues has drawn attention of researchers to renewable energy resources and photocatalytic hydrogen production is considered to be safe and applicable method to meet future energy demand. Herein, we have used ?-Bi 2 O 3 nanorods for loading CZS (Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S) to form a heterostructure for photocatalytic H 2 production. The ?-Bi 2 O 3 /CZS heterostructure was characterized through TEM, Elemental Mapping, XRD and XPS analysis. The ?-Bi 2 O 3 /CZS heterostructure shows photocatalytic H 2 production rate of 254.1 ?mol h ?1 with apparent quantum yield of 6.8% (? = 420 nm). The enhanced photocatalytic performance was supported by transient photocurrent response curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results which suggest the efficient charge separation and electron mobility in ?-Bi 2 O 3 /CZS heterostructure. The intimate contact formed between ?-Bi 2 O 3 nanorods and CZS nanoparticles responsible for the efficient flow of electrons following a Z-scheme pattern resulting in higher photocatalytic H 2 production. Moreover, the as-synthesized ?-Bi 2 O 3 /CZS heterostructure shows negligible loss of activity after 4 consecutive recycling cycles. Our findings open new possibilities for the design of heterostructure based photocatalysts. - 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC