A Tandem 0D/2D/2D NbS2 Quantum Dot/Nb2 O5 Nanosheet/g-C3 N4 Flake System with Spatial Charge-Transfer Cascades for Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Bo Lin; Zihao Chen; Pin Song; Haishi Liu; Lixing Kang; Jun Di; Xiao Luo; Longqing Chen; Chao Xue; Bowen Ma; Guidong Yang; Jun Tang; Jiadong Zhou; Zheng Liu; Fucai Liu

doi:10.1002/smll.202003302

A Tandem 0D/2D/2D NbS₂ Quantum Dot/Nb₂ O₅ Nanosheet/g-C₃ N₄ Flake System with Spatial Charge-Transfer Cascades for Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Small. 2020 Oct;16(42):e2003302. doi: 10.1002/smll.202003302. Epub 2020 Sep 23.

Authors

Bo Lin¹, Zihao Chen², Pin Song³, Haishi Liu¹, Lixing Kang³, Jun Di³, Xiao Luo¹, Longqing Chen⁴, Chao Xue⁵, Bowen Ma¹, Guidong Yang², Jun Tang⁴, Jiadong Zhou³, Zheng Liu³, Fucai Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China.
² XJTU-Oxford International Joint Laboratory for Catalysis, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
³ Center for Programmable Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Radiation Physics and Technology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China.
⁵ State Centre for International Cooperation on Designer Low-Carbon and Environmental Materials (CDLCEM), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China.

PMID: 32969149
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202003302

Abstract

The relatively high recombination rate of charges remains the most critical limiting factor for solar-driven water splitting for hydrogen generation. Herein, a tandem 0D/2D/2D NbS₂ quantum dot/Nb₂ O₅ nanosheet/g-C₃ N₄ flake (NSNOCN) system is designed. Owing to the unique spatial-arrangement and elaborate morphology of 0D NbS₂ , 2D Nb₂ O₅ , and 2D g-C₃ N₄ in the newly designed NSNOCN, plenty of spatial charge-transfer cascades from g-C₃ N₄ to NbS₂ via Nb₂ O₅ are formed to accelerate separation and transfer of charges significantly, thus contributing to a high photocatalytic H₂ generation rate of 13.99 mmol h^-1 g^-1 (an apparent quantum efficiency of 10.8% at 420 nm), up to 107.6 and 43.7 times by contrast with that of g-C₃ N₄ and Nb₂ O₅ , respectively. This work can provide a new platform in the design of artificial photocatalytic systems with high charge-transfer efficiency.

Keywords: NbS 2 quantum dots (QDs); g-C 3N 4 flakes; photocatalytic H 2 evolution; spatial charge-transfer cascades; tandem 0D/2D/2D systems.

Abstract

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