High-throughput Production of ZnO-MoS2-Graphene Heterostructures for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Haocong Dong; Junzhu Li; Mingguang Chen; Hongwei Wang; Xiaochuan Jiang; Yongguang Xiao; Bo Tian; Xixiang Zhang

doi:10.3390/ma12142233

High-throughput Production of ZnO-MoS₂-Graphene Heterostructures for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Materials (Basel). 2019 Jul 11;12(14):2233. doi: 10.3390/ma12142233.

Authors

Haocong Dong^{1

2}, Junzhu Li^{2

3}, Mingguang Chen³, Hongwei Wang^{2

4}, Xiaochuan Jiang^{2

5}, Yongguang Xiao⁶, Bo Tian^{7

8}, Xixiang Zhang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Film Materials & Application for Equipment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.
² Eleven-Dimensional Nanomaterial Research Institute, Xiamen 361000, China.
³ Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronic Engineering Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
⁵ Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Film Materials & Application for Equipment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China. ygxiao@xtu.edu.cn.
⁷ Eleven-Dimensional Nanomaterial Research Institute, Xiamen 361000, China. bo.tian@kaust.edu.sa.
⁸ Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. bo.tian@kaust.edu.sa.
⁹ Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. xixiang.zhang@kaust.edu.sa.

Abstract

High-throughput production of highly efficient photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution remains a considerable challenge for materials scientists. Here, we produced extremely uniform high-quality graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanoplatelets through the electrochemical-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation, out of which we subsequently fabricated MoS₂/graphene van der Waals heterostructures. Ultimately, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were deposited into these two-dimensional heterostructures to produce an artificial ZnO/MoS₂/graphene nanocomposite. This new composite experimentally exhibited an excellent photocatalytic efficiency in hydrogen evolution under the sunlight illumination ( λ > 400   n m ), owing to the extremely high electron mobilities in graphene nanoplatelets and the significant visible-light absorptions of MoS₂. Moreover, due to the synergistic effects in MoS₂ and graphene, the lifetime of excited carriers increased dramatically, which considerably improved the photocatalytic efficiency of the ZnO/MoS₂/graphene heterostructure. We conclude that the novel artificial heterostructure presented here shows great potential for the high-efficient photocatalytic hydrogen generation and the high throughput production of visible-light photocatalysts for industrial applications.

Keywords: MoS2; ZnO; graphene; high-throughput production; photocatalyst.