Water splitting is a promising process to produce hydrogen from friendly feedstock and solar energy. In this work we have evaluated binary (GO-CdS) and ternary (Pt-GO-CdS) hybrid photocatalysts for hydrogen production assisted by visible light irradiation. Cadmium sulfide and composites with GO were prepared by sonochemical and thermal methods. GO addition took place by different strategies: during the synthesis or by mechanical mixture. A variety of configurations was tested and the best performance in hydrogen production among all materials was the ternary photocatalyst named Pt(GO/CdSTT), whose hydrogen production rate was 651 µmol gcat-1 h-1. Such material was obtained by thermal method with GO addition during the synthesis. Additionally, the XRD and Raman analyses have confirmed the GO photoreduction during photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.
Keywords:
water splitting; hydrogen; photocatalysis; graphene; cadmium sulfide; visible light
