Synthesis of non-noble metal nickel doped sulfide solid solution for improved photocatalytic performance

Bimetallic Sulfides, a series of versatile catalysts, are still hampered from putting into practical application due to the issue of the recombination of photogenerated charges. In this work, in order to enhance the light harvesting ability as well as ameliorate the separation and transportation of photo-induced charges at the same time, Ni ion was adopted to modify Zn0.5Cd0.5S catalyst. The subsequent photocatalytic water splitting tests showed that the H2 evolution rate over Ni doped Zn0.5Cd0.5S was 6 times higher than that achieved on the prestine Zn0.5Cd0.5S, indicating a significant enhancement in catalytic activity. Furthermore, the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol was also performed by the as-prepared catalysts under visible light irradiation. When 1% Ni ions were doped in Zn0.5Cd0.5S solid solution, the yield of product benzaldehyde was increased from 70% to 92%. The photoelectrochemical test suggests that the improved photocatalytic performance is presumably ascribed to the efficient separation of photo-generated carriers. Additionally, DOS calculation confirms the contribution of the improved light harvesting ability of Ni-doped Zn0.5Cd0.5S in the photocatalytic reaction. In all, this work presents that doping Ni into ZnS/CdS solid solution is a very useful technique to improve photocatalytic activity for two typical photocatalytic reactions-the H2 evolution and alcohol selective oxidation reaction.