Fabrication of TaON/CdS Heterostructures for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution under Visible Light Irradiation

Developing high-performance photocatalysts for H-2 production via fabricating heterojunctions has attracted much attention. Herein, we design a simple strategy to prepare composites that consist of TaON/CdS hybrids via a hydrothermal process. The results show that the pristine CdS nanoparticles loaded with 20 wt% TaON (TC4) could maximize the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate to 19.29 mmol g(-1) h(-1) under visible light irradiation, which was 2.13 times higher than that of the pristine CdS (9.03 mmol g(-1) h(-1)) under the same conditions. The apparent quantum yield (AQY) of the TC4 nanocomposites at 420 nm was calculated to be 18.23%. The outstanding photocatalytic performance of the composites can be ascribed to the formation of heterojunctions. The electrochemical measurements indicate that the decoration facilitates the generation of extra photo-electrons, prolonging the recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers, offering adequate active sites and improving catalytic stability. This study sheds light on the construction strategy and the deep understanding of the novel CdS-based composites for high-performance photocatalytic H-2 production.