Cu₂O Decorated with Cocatalyst MoS₂ for Solar Hydrogen Production with Enhanced Efficiency under Visible Light

In this work, we have prepared a p-type semiconductor of Cu2O decorated with MoS2 nanosheets as cocatalyst for efficient solar hydrogen production under visible light. Results show that Cu2O decorated with 1.0 wt % MoS2 presents the maximum reduction photocurrent density of 0.17 mA cm–2, which is 7-fold higher than pristine Cu2O. Furthermore, the as-prepared MoS2@Cu2O exhibits remarkable photostability with only 7% loss of its original photocurrent after 9 h of continuous work. The excellent performance of MoS2@Cu2O is ascribed to the introduction of active sites of MoS2 nanosheets as cocatalyst to the surface of Cu2O nanoparticles, which activates the photocatalyst by lowering the electrochemical proton reduction overpotential and also inhibits photoinduced corrosion during the measurement.