A hierarchical carbon nanofiber-In_2S_3 photocatalyst with well controlled nanostructures for highly efficient hydrogen production under visible light

摘要

In this study, a novel hierarchical visible-light responsive photocatalyst was delicately designed and synthesized by anchoring In_2S_3 flower-like nanostructures on non-woven carbon nanofibers (CNF) for the first time. The nanostructures of these CNF-In_2S_3 composites were fine tuned, with the aim to achieve the highest photocatalytic hydrogen production activity under visible light. The results indicated that the hierarchical CNF-In_2S_3-24h photocatalyst exhibited exceptionally high hydrogen evolution rate (ca. 390 umol h~(-1)), which was around 15 and 12 times higher than that of pure In_2S_3 and commercial N-TiO_2 nanoparticles, respectively. The prominent photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of the hierarchical CNF-In_2S_3-24h photocatalyt can be attributed to the excellent properties of enhanced light absorption and efficient charge separation, which are all derived from the special 3D hierarchical nanostructures.