Title : Functional heterojunctions nanocatalysts for scalable hydrogen production
Abstract:
Functional nanostructures based photochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting is an ultimate source of hydrogen generation as renewable green energy for tackling the ongoing fuel crisis. g-C3N4 is an ideal candidate for overall water splitting as a result of the excellent alignment of its band edges with water redox potentials. However, a single catalyst with a limited number of active sites does not exhibit significant photo/electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen production. Therefore, we have developed the semiconductor heterostructures of g-C3N4 with CuFe2O4, Cu2O, CdSe, CdS and MoS2 NPs and QDs as the highly efficient nanocatalysts for enhanced hydrogen evolution reactions. The monophasic heterostructures have been designed in different weight ratios with fairly uniform distribution of nearly spherical particles and high specific surface area which creates an interfacial charge transfer between two semiconductors. As prepared heterostructures showed significant hydrogen evolution which is evident by observing high apparent quantum yield, low onset potential, lower overpotential and high electrochemical active surface area that will be presented in detail.
