Boosting light-driven hydrogen evolution through cerium vanadate/cerium sulphide type-II heterostructure

Abstract

Fabrication of heterostructures to boost the light-driven hydrogen evolution is one of the efficient way to address the energy crisis across the globe. Cerium vanadate (CeV)/Cerium sulphide (CeS) heterostructure has been synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. Structural, spectroscopic, morphological, optical and photo- electrochemical characterizations confirm the formation of heterostructure between CeV and CeS. Photochemical hydrogen evolution was observed in all the three catalysts (CeV, CeS and CeV/CeS) both under visible and ultraviolet light sources. CeS, CeV and CeV/CeS found to evolve 3897, 6453 and 12,456 mu mol of hydrogen in 4 h, respectively under visible light. In addition photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution experiment was conducted in which, CeV/CeS heterostructure showed high photocurrent density at 0.25 V vs. RHE, which is almost 1.47 folds greater than that of CeV and 2.1 times that of CeS. The optical and electrochemical characteristics shows that photocatalytic hydrogen evolution follows type-II heterostructure. A good stability of the CeV/CeS heterostructure finds its suitability for practical applications for various photocatalytic experiments.