Ternary Cu(OH)₂/P(g-C₃N₄)/MoS₂ Nanostructures for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

We report here the design and synthesis of hybrid ternary heterostructure, Cu(OH)2/P(g-C3N4)/MoS2, toward efficient visible-light driven hydrogen production through water reduction. The proposed hierarchical composite comprising of MoS2 and Cu(OH)2 as a cocatalyst is stabilized onto P(g-C3N4). The robust hybrid photocatalyst demonstrates remarkable HER activity, superior light harvesting and charge transfer kinetics, resulting in a high hydrogen production rate of 12.01 mmol h–1 g–1 and AQY of 19.8%, where the efficiency is enhanced by approximately 40 times compared to the pristine P(g-C3N4). Our advanced heterostructure composite design strategies supported by X-ray, XPS, EPR, PL-TCSPC, and electron microscopy with DFT calculations enabled us to correlate the electronic structure with charge transfer kinetics for higher activities and thereby satisfy all the stringent requirements for practical solar-driven hydrogen evolution applications.