Highly Efficient Photocatalysts: Polyoxometalate Synthons Enable Tailored CdS-MoS₂ Morphologies and Enhanced H₂ Evolution

Thedevelopment of photocatalysts toward highly efficient H-2 evolution reactions is a feasible strategy to achieve theeffective conversion of solar energy and meet the increasing demandfor new energy. To this end, we prepared two different CdS-MoS2 photocatalysts with unique morphologies ranging from hexagonalprisms to tetragonal nanotubes by carefully tuning polyoxometalatesynthons. These two photocatalysts, namely, CdS-MoS2-1 and CdS-MoS2-2, both exhibited remarkable photocatalyticefficiency in H-2 generation, among which CdS-MoS2-2 showed superior performance. In fact, the best catalytichydrogen desorption rate of CdS-MoS2-2 is as highas 1815.5 & mu;mol g(-1) h(-1).Such performance is superior to twice that of single CdS and almostfour times that of pure MoS2. This obvious enhancementcan be accredited to the highly open nanotube morphology and highlydispersed heterometallic composition of CdS-MoS2-2, which represents an excellent example of the highest noble-metal-freeH(2) evolution photocatalysts reported so far. Taken together,these findings suggest that the development of highly dispersed heterometalliccatalysts is an auspicious route to realize highly efficient conversionof solar energy and that CdS-MoS2-2 represents amajor advance in this field.