Efficient Charge Migration in Chemically-Bonded Prussian Blue Analogue/CdS with Beaded Structure for Photocatalytic H2 Evolution

Mi Zhang; Yifa Chen; Jia-Nan Chang; Cheng Jiang; Wen-Xin Ji; Le-Yan Li; Meng Lu; Long-Zhang Dong; Shun-Li Li; Yue-Peng Cai; Ya-Qian Lan

doi:10.1021/jacsau.0c00082

Efficient Charge Migration in Chemically-Bonded Prussian Blue Analogue/CdS with Beaded Structure for Photocatalytic H₂ Evolution

JACS Au. 2021 Jan 11;1(2):212-220. doi: 10.1021/jacsau.0c00082. eCollection 2021 Feb 22.

Authors

Mi Zhang¹, Yifa Chen², Jia-Nan Chang², Cheng Jiang², Wen-Xin Ji³, Le-Yan Li², Meng Lu², Long-Zhang Dong², Shun-Li Li², Yue-Peng Cai¹, Ya-Qian Lan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P.R. China.
² Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of New Power Batteries, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, P.R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Coal Utilization and Green Chemical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, P.R. China.

Abstract

The design of a powerful heterojunction structure and the study of the interfacial charge migration pathway at the atomic level are essential to mitigate the photocorrosion and recombination of electron-hole pairs of CdS in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE). A temperature-induced self-assembly strategy has been proposed for the syntheses of Prussian blue analogue (PBA)/CdS nanocomposites with beaded structure. The specially designed structure had evenly exposed CdS which can efficiently harvest visible light and inhibit photocorrosion; meanwhile, PBA with a large cavity provided channels for mass transfer and photocatalytic reaction centers. Remarkably, PB-Co/CdS-LT-3 exhibits a PHE rate of 57 228 μmol h^-1 g^-1, far exceeding that of CdS or PB-Co and comparable to those of most reported crystalline porous material-based photocatalysts. The high performances are associated with efficient charge migration from CdS to PB-Co through CN-Cd electron bridges, as revealed by the DFT calculations. This work sheds light on the exploration of heterostructure materials in efficient PHE.