| Summary: | A novel co-catalyst system under visible-light irradiation was constructed using high-purity metal and alloy mesh and a Mn<sub>0.5</sub>Cd<sub>0.5</sub>S photocatalyst with a narrow band gap (1.91 eV) prepared by hydrothermal synthesis. The hydrogen production rate of Mn<sub>0.5</sub>Cd<sub>0.5</sub>S changed from 2.21 to 6.63 mmol·(g·h)<sup>−1</sup> with the amount of thioacetamide, which was used as the sulphur source. The introduction of Ag, Mo, Ni, Cu, and Cu–Ni alloy meshes efficiently improved the H<sub>2</sub> production rate of the co-catalyst system, especially for the Ni mesh. The improvement can reach an approximately six times greater production, with the highest H<sub>2</sub> production rate being 37.65 mmol·(g·h)<sup>−1</sup>. The results showed that some bulk non-noble metal meshes can act as good or better than some noble metal nanoparticles deposited on the main photocatalyst for H<sub>2</sub> evolution due to the promotion of photoinduced electron transfer, increase in redox reaction sites, and prevention of the recombination of carriers.
|
|---|