Anti-Stoke effect induced enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

Photocatalytic hydrogen production via solar energy is considered one of the most strategic ways to produce renewable energy. However, expensive Pt is normally used as the cocatalyst during photocatalysis, which prevents commercialization. Therefore, extensive research has been performed to seek abundant and low-cost alternative catalysts. In this work, MoS₂ quantum dots (QDs) synthesized by a hydrothermal method are incorporated with graphitic carbon nitride to form a heterostructure for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. MoS₂ QDs/g-C₃N₄ heterostructure containing 5% and 10% MoS₂ QDs exhibited a high hydrogen production of 140 and 152 µmol h⁻¹g⁻¹, respectively, demonstrating the potential of MoS₂ as an effective economic cocatalyst. Detailed investigations indicate that incorporating MoS₂ QDs with carbon nitride to form heterostructure reduces the bandgap, suppresses the recombination, and enhances electron kinetic energy resulting from the anti-Stoke effect, thus leading to better performance for hydrogen evolution.