Morphology controlling strategy of ZnS/CeO2 catalysts to enhance the photocatalytic performance for hydrogen production

Abstract Semiconductor photocatalysts have been utilized to convert solar energy into hydrogen. However, CeO2 has been rarely reported as a photocatalyst for hydrogen production on account of the rapid photoelectron-hole pair recombination and limited visible light adsorption capacity. In this work, we present the morphology controlling strategy on the purpose of preparing efficient composite semiconductor photocatalysts of CeO2 with regular shape and reliable performance. The synthesized photocatalysts ZnS/CeO2 with completely different morphologies structure (ZnS/CeO2 solid spheres and ZnS/CeO2 hollow dodecahedra) were obtained by a similar method. The results show that with the expansion of the visible light absorption range and the increase of nano pore porosity, the two photocatalysts ZnS/CeO2 can afford more active sites and promote the transfer of photogenerated electrons-holes, thus effectively improving the hydrogen production efficiency. Besides, both of the photocatalysts ZnS/CeO2 exhibit the long term (25 ​h) stability that also indicates a great potential in the photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen evolution. This work provides a new idea and research method for further research on hydrogen production from photolysis of water.