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Flower ball MoS2 embedded in sheet-like Sm2WO6 to construct p–n heterojunction for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

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Abstract

Photocatalytic hydrogen production is one of the effective ways of global energy conservation and emission reduction. Herein, we report the successful embedding of flower ball MoS2 into Sm2WO6 using the hydrothermal method, and p-n heterojunction is obtained successfully. Due to the narrow band gap of MoS2, the Sm2WO6/ MoS2 composite photocatalyst effectively improves the photogenerated carrier separation. The better redox capacity of Sm2WO6 itself also promotes the reduction capacity of Sm2WO6/MoS2. The petals on MoS2 are closely bound to Sm2WO6, which enhances the electron transport efficiency and is one of the main factors for improving photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (HER). To explore the performance of Sm2WO6/ MoS2 by various means of representation. And the HER performance of Sm2WO6/ MoS2 is evaluated using eosin Y (EY) as sensitizer and TEOA as sacrifice agent. Compared with pure Sm2WO6, Sm2WO6/ MoS2 has improved HER performance, and its optimal activity is 142.7 µmol, which is nearly 140 times that of pure Sm2WO6. This study demonstrates a novel morphology design strategy for composite photocatalysts to promote efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Central Universities of North University for Nationalities (2021KJCX02) and also was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia Province (2021AAC03180).

Funding

This work was supported by Central Universities of North University for Nationalities (Grant number: 2021KJCX02) and also was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia Province (Grant number: 2021AAC03180).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, 750021, People’s Republic of China

    Zezhong Li, Jing Xu, Yongqiang Ma, Yue Ma & Zhenlu Liu

  2. Ningxia Key Laboratory of Solar Chemical Conversion Technology, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, 750021, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Xu

  3. Key Laboratory for Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Ethnic Affairs Commission, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, 750021, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Xu

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  1. Zezhong Li
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Contributions

ZL: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, supervision, visualization, writing—original draft. JX: Conceptualization, methodology, supervision, resources, funding acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing. YM: Investigation, visualization. YM: Investigation, resources. ZL: Investigation.

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Correspondence to Jing Xu.

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Li, Z., Xu, J., Ma, Y. et al. Flower ball MoS2 embedded in sheet-like Sm2WO6 to construct p–n heterojunction for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 423 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12171-w

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