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. 2015 Sep 4:5:13593.
doi: 10.1038/srep13593.

Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production of Flower-like Cadmium Sulfide Decorated by Histidine

Qizhao Wang  1   2 , Juhong Lian  1 , Jiajia Li  1 , Rongfang Wang  1 , Haohao Huang  3 , Bitao Su  1 , Ziqiang Lei  1
Affiliations

Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production of Flower-like Cadmium Sulfide Decorated by Histidine

Qizhao Wang et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Morphology-controlled synthesis of CdS can significantly enhance the efficiency of its photocatalytic hydrogen production. In this study, a novel three-dimensional (3D) flower-like CdS is synthesized via a facile template-free hydrothermal process using Cd(NO3)2•4H2O and thiourea as precursors and L-Histidine as a chelating agent. The morphology, crystal phase, and photoelectrochemical performance of the flower-like CdS and pure CdS nanocrystals are carefully investigated via various characterizations. Superior photocatalytic activity relative to that of pure CdS is observed on the flower-like CdS photocatalyst under visible light irradiation, which is nearly 13 times of pure CdS. On the basis of the results from SEM studies and our analysis, a growth mechanism of flower-like CdS is proposed by capturing the shape evolution. The imidazole ring of L-Histidine captures the Cd ions from the solution, and prevents the growth of the CdS nanoparticles. Furthermore, the photocatalytic contrast experiments illustrate that the as-synthesized flower-like CdS with L-Histidine is more stable than CdS without L-Histidine in the hydrogen generation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. XRD patterns of CdS prepared without L-Histidine (a) and with L-Histidine (b) (H: hexagonal phases and C: cubic phases).
Figure 2
Figure 2. SEM images of CdS prepared without L-Histidine (a–c) and with L-Histidine (d–f), and SEM image of CdS prepared with L-Histidine after 5 h of reaction under the visible-light irradiation (g).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Morphological characterization of flower-like CdS.
TEM images of pure CdS (a) and flower-like CdS (b); the HRTEM image of a single petal flower-like CdS (c).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Schematic of the growth process of flower-like CdS (This Figure was drawn by our co-author Jiajia Li).
Figure 5
Figure 5. The structure of Cd(II) bis-hitidinato complex.
Figure 6
Figure 6. UV-vis absorption spectra (a) and Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms (b) of the samples.
Figure 7
Figure 7. The transient photocurrent of CdS prepared without L-Histidine and with L-Histidine under visible light (a) PL spectra of the as-prepared photocatalysts (b).
Figure 8
Figure 8. The rate of H2 evolution on the samples CdS prepared without L-Histidine and with L-Histidine under visible light (a) Photoevolution of H2 on the photocatalysts under visible light irradiation (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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