Local coulomb attraction for enhanced H₂ evolution stability of metal sulfide photocatalysts

Cadmiun sulfide (CdS) is considered as a promising semiconductor photocatalyst for its outstanding light absorbance and photoinduced charge separation, but it suffers from severe photocorrosion, mainly due to the sluggish kinetics of holes transfer. In this work, we introduce the strong local Coulomb attraction, which is demonstrated via the in situ K-edge X-ray absorption near edge (XANES) analysis, to accelerate the migration of holes for long-term photocatalytic activity. As a proof-of-concept sample, the hole-attraction Fe₂O₃/CdS nanorods evidence an outstanding stability of at least 6 days without obvious deactivation, and feature with an excellent H₂ evolution rate of 20.7 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹. Moreover, this Coulomb attraction strategy can be leveraged to enhance the photocatalytic performance of Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S, indicating the wide application of the strategy.