Issue 35/2015 - Important progress has been made in the research of high-efficiency and low-cost photocatalytic hydrogen production in China

Non-polluting, low-cost hydrogen production technology is an important research topic
for human beings to cope with fossil energy pollution and shortage.
Recently, Professor Du Pingwu's research group of University of Science and Technology of China prepared a non-precious metal photocatalytic hydrogen production material with high conversion rate, which showed superior artificial hydrogen production performance
.

Traditional fossil energy such as oil and coal has brought a series of problems such as global warming, environmental pollution and energy shortage, while hydrogen, as an efficient and clean secondary energy carrier, is considered an important source of clean energy for
future mankind.
Converting solar energy into hydrogen energy by simulating photosynthesis is an ideal way to
produce hydrogen.
Previously, due to the large use of precious metal catalysts, the cost was expensive, and the unsatisfactory light-absorbing materials also greatly affected the efficiency of
hydrogen production.

Professor Du Pingwu's research group recently found that loading phosphides such as cuprous phosphide and molybdenum phosphide on semiconductors can effectively improve the efficiency of
photocatalytic hydrogen production.
On this basis, they cleverly supported the new nickel phosphide cocatalyst on the cadmium sulfide semiconductor nanowires by solvothermal method, and obtained a uniformly distributed and tightly contacted nickel phosphide/cadmium sulfide composite structure
.

Experimental data and spectral characterization show that the composite structure can effectively promote the rapid electron transfer process in the composite and improve the performance
of visible light catalytic hydrogen production.
As an efficient, stable and inexpensive artificial photosynthesis catalyst, this achievement has attracted the attention of the Royal Society of Chemistry and other international academic circles, and is considered to have important research value and application prospects
.
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