Title

Nickel nanoparticles modified CdS - A potential photocatalyst for hydrogen production through water splitting under visible light irradiation

Authors

Authors

H. Wang; W. Chen; J. Zhang; C. P. Huang;L. Q. Mao

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Int. J. Hydrog. Energy

Keywords

CdS; Ni nanoparticles; Photocatalyst; Water splitting; Hydrogen; production; Photocatalytic activity; HIGHLY EFFICIENT; EVOLUTION; TIO2; FABRICATION; COCATALYST; PARTICLES; NIO/TIO2; SURFACE; Chemistry, Physical; Electrochemistry; Energy & Fuels

Abstract

Ni nanoparticles were prepared via chemical reduction of aqueous NiCl2 center dot 6H(2)O by N2H4 center dot H2O, and loaded on the surface of CdS by photo-induced electrons as water splitting reaction was occurring. Resultant CdS modified with Ni nanoparticles (denoted as Ni/CdS) was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV vis diffuse reflectance spectrometry, and photoluminescence spectrometry, and its photocatalytic performance for water splitting under visible light irradiation producing hydrogen was evaluated with a 300 W Xe lamp as the light source (lambda > = 420 nm). It was found that as-obtained Ni nanoparticles with an average size of about 10 nm have face centered cubic structure, and they are preferentially deposited on the (100), (002), and (101) crystal planes of CdS nanorods to afford Ni/CdS photocatalyst. Besides, as-prepared Ni/CdS photocatalyst has a surface area of 28.8 m(2)/g (determined by BET method), higher than that of CdS nanorods, which indicates that Ni nanoparticles is beneficial to increasing the surface area of CdS nanorods. Moreover, as-prepared Ni/CdS photocatalyst shows absorption traits in the visible light region, and its photoluminescence peak intensity is lower than that of CdS, which means that Ni nanoparticles function as the trappers of photo-generated electrons to quench the photoluminescence of CdS. More importantly, although pristine CdS exhibits no activity for hydrogen production from water splitting under visible light irradiation, Ni/ CdS photocatalyst with a Ni content of 4% (mass fraction) provides a hydrogen production rate of 25.848 mmol/(h g) (QE = 26.8%, lambda = 420 nm) from water splitting of (NH4)(2)SO3 aqueous solution under the same testing condition and it retains a high stability and activity even after 20 h of water splitting. This demonstrates that Ni/CdS could be a promising candidate photocatalyst for visible light water splitting yielding hydrogen. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Volume

40

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

340

Last Page

345

WOS Identifier

WOS:000348687300034

ISSN

0360-3199

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