Preparation of CdS-BaZrO₃ Heterojunction for Enhanced Photocatalytic Water-Splitting Hydrogen Production

ABSTRACT: Photocatalytic water splitting using solar light, a promising technical approach for hydrogen production. However, the slow charge transfer and rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers in photocatalysis limit their practical application. To address these issues, in this work, we successfully prepared a novel CdS-BaZrO₃ (CdS-BZO₃) heterojunction via a simple chemical-bath deposition method. The as-prepared heterojunctions facilitate the separation and transportation of photogenerated charges, while also maintaining the high redox-oxid ation ability of the photocatalysts. As a result, CdS-BZO₃ heterojunctions show enhanced photocatalytic water-splitting hydrogen production ability without a co-catalyst. Especially, the optimized CdS-BZO₃ sample exhibits high photocatalytic activity with a hydrogen production rate of 44.77 μmol/h, which is 4.4 and 2.9 times higher than that of BZO₃ and CdS, respectively. At the same time, the CdS-BZO₃ heterojunction exhibits good stability in the photocatalytic hydrogen production cycle test. This work provides a reference for the heterostructure construction of perovskite-based photocatalysts to improve photocatalytic performance.