Few layered black phosphorus/MoS2 nanohybrid: A promising co-catalyst for solar driven hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Exploring active and stable photocatalysts is an essential requirement for boosting the efficiency of photocatalytic water splitting to obtain clean hydrogen fuel. Here, a few layered black phosphorus/MoS2 (BP-MoS2) nanohybrid was successfully prepared and verified it for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using CdS nanorods as light absorbers. The resulting nanohybrids manifest remarkable catalytic performance with high amount of H-2 production (CdS/BP-MoS2: 183.24 mmol h(-1) g(-1)) and outstanding catalytic stability. The observed amount of H-2 is much higher than that of various CdS/BP and CdS/MoS2 based nanohybrids reported earlier. We expect that the demonstrated new heterostructured design strategy may bring novel insights to develop low-price noble metal free photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution.