Title : A binary dumbbell visible light driven photocatalyst for simultaneous hydrogen production with the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde
Abstract:
Photocatalytic H2 production with selective oxidation of organic moieties is a fascinating reach area. However, rational design of photocatalysts and photocatalytic performance is still inadequate. In this work, we efficiently synthesized the MoS2 tipped CdS NWs photocatalyst using soft templates via the two-step hydrothermal method for efficient H2 production with selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BO) under visible light illumination. The optimized MoS2 tipped CdS (20% MoS2) photocatalyst exhibits the highest photocatalytic H2 production efficiency of 13.55 mmol g-1 h-1 with 99% selective oxidation of BO. The directional loading of MoS2 at the tips of CdS NWs is the key factor toward superior H2 production with 99% selective oxidation of BO. The amazing enhancement in the photocatalytic performance and selectivity of optimized photocatalyst is due to the spatial separation of their photoexcited charge carriers through the Schottky junction. Moreover, the unique structure of MoS2 flower at the tip of 1D CdS NWs offers separate active sites for adsorption and surface reactions such as H2 production at the MoS2 flower and selective oxidation of BO at the stem of CdS NWs. This rational design of photocatalyst could be an inspiring work for the further development of efficient photocatalytic system for H2 production with selective oxidation of BO.
