Flowered molybdenum base trimetallic oxide decorated by CdS nanorod construct S-scheme heterojunctions for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Molybdenum-based metal oxide catalysts are attracting widespread attention in the field of photocatalysis due to their significant applications in addressing energy and environmental challenges. As a new three-dimensional molybdenum-based metal oxide photocatalyst, NaZn2(OH)(MoO4)2·H2O is highly promising as a semiconductor catalyst for enhancing photocatalytic performance, thanks to its ease of preparation and environmental friendliness. Herein, we prepared an S-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst composed of NaZn2(OH)(MoO4)2·H2O and CdS, which enabled efficient H2 production through photocatalysis, addressing issues associated with the rapid recombination rate of photogenerated carriers. The hydrogen generation yield of NZM/CdS-30 reached 5335 μmol g−1 h−1, approximately 30 and 953 times higher than those of CdS and NaZn2(OH)(MoO4)2·H2O, respectively. Moreover, we verified the mechanism through in-situ XPS analysis to elucidate the activity enhancement. Our research provides an innovative universal and effective synthetic strategy of design S-scheme heterojunction for hydrogen production from solar water splitting.