One-step solvothermal synthesis of MoS₂/TiO₂ nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic H₂ production

The present communication reports on a facile one-step solvothermal synthesis of highly crystallized MoS₂/TiO₂ nanocomposites for the first time. The TEM image shows the generation of a large amount of TiO₂ nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 5–8 nm. The photocurrent measurement suggests that loading a certain amount of MoS₂ can effectively improve separation of photogenerated carries. Cyclic voltammograms measurements reveal that TiO₂ modified with 1.0 wt% MoS₂ can reduce hydrogen reduction overpotential, thereby leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity. Photocatalytic H₂ evolution test suggests that 1.0 wt% MoS₂/TiO₂ nanocomposites show superior photocatalytic activity, and the H₂ production rate achieves 119.5 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ and is about 19 times higher than that of TiO₂ alone, which could be attributed to the short diffusion distance in TiO₂ nanoparticles, efficient interfacial electron transfer from TiO₂ nanoparticles to MoS₂ surface, and reduced hydrogen reduction overpotential. Furthermore, the MoS₂/TiO₂ photocatalysts are stabile during the photocatalytic H₂ evolution test. Graphical abstract: . .