Abstract Detail

Abstract

The simultaneous production of the storable and renewable hydrogen with high value-added organic chemicals in a single aqueous system by photocatalysis is an environmentally-friendly and emerging strategy. Here we used CdS NWs (nanowires) with vanadium carbide (VC) attached via facile electrostatic self-assembly. The results showed that compared to pristine CdS NWs, the photocatalytic activity of CdS NWs loaded with the particular amount of VC was dramatically enhanced. Among them, the VC/CS-15 indicated the highest enhancement for simultaneous production of H2 with selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde. The highest hydrogen evolution rate of 20.5 mmol g-1 h-1 was obtained with more than 99% selectivity for BD production under visible light (λ＞420 nm) irradiation for 2 h, which was almost 661 times higher than the pristine CdS NWs. This enhancement of photocatalytic activity is due to the VC, which provides a favorable attraction for BO by lowering the zeta potential, along with the active site for hydrogen production, and retard the recombination of electron-hole pairs by increasing the conductivity of the photocatalyst. Moreover, the apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of VC/CS-15 for BD and H2 production at monochromatic 420 nm is about 7.5%. At the end of the hydrogen evolution test, the selective oxidation with more than 99% selectivity was obtained.  It hopes this work will prove its future significance and move scientific community toward a more economical way for achieving the commercialization of H2 by photocatalysis.

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