Novel interfacial lateral electron migration pathway formed by constructing metallized CoP2/CdS interface for excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production

Promoting photo-induced electron transfer is one of the most efficient approaches for improving photocatalytic hydrogen production performance. Herein, we construct a novel interfacial lateral electron migration path by introducing CoP2 into CdS photocatalytic system as cocatalyst for the first time. This peculiar migration path can be attributed to two aspects: 1) the built-in electric field between CoP2 and CdS could drive carrier separation effectively; 2) the “metallized” interface serves as a special electron trap to accumulate electrons and promote them transfer along it instead of diffusion into cocatalyst. The energy-efficient interface shortens the electron migration distance and make more hot electrons participate in the reaction at the active sites with lower activation energy. As expected, the optimal hydrogen production rate of CoP2/CdS reaches up to 1071 mmol h−1 g−1, which is one of the most robust photocatalytic hydrogen production systems.