NH₃-treated MoS₂nanosheets as photocatalysts for enhanced H₂evolution under visible-light irradiation

MoS₂is widely applied in photocatalytic H₂evolution to function as an efficient cocatalyst, whereas it is not yet reported that this material acted as an effective host photocatalyst in this field. Herein, MoS₂nanosheets were prepared by a general hydrothermal process at first, and then treated with flowing NH₃at temperatures from 400 to 900 °C to develop a series of novel MoS₂-based photocatalysts, which showed considerable photocatalytic activities for H₂evolution under visible-light irradiation. It was deduced from different instrumental characterizations on the physicochemical properties of photocatalysts that the enhancement of photocatalytic activity by high-temperature NH₃treatment could be mainly attributed to the modification of surface properties (such as electric property and acid-base properties) by N, which promoted the adsorption of reactants and further accelerated photocatalytic reaction. This work presented an effective route to explore new H₂-evolution photocatalysts by modifying the appropriate materials that were commonly employed as cocatalysts.