Photocatalytic H ₂ evolution on MoS ₂ –TiO ₂ catalysts synthesized via mechanochemistry

At present, composite photocatalysts containing MoS2 as a co-catalyst and a subjective semiconductor material are usually obtained via various complex reduction methods using NH4MoS4 or Na2MoO4 as a precursor. In this work, a simple method was proposed to synthesize MoS2-TiO2 composite photocatalysts via mechanochemistry using MoS2 as a direct precursor. 4.0% MoS2-TiO2 after ball-milling at 300 rpm for 2 h possessed the maximum photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution. The rate of H2 evolution was up to 150.7 μmol h(-1), which was 48.6 times higher than that of pure TiO2. The MoS2-TiO2 composite possesses stable photocatalytic performance for H2 evolution. Photoelectrochemical measurements confirmed the electronic interaction between TiO2 and MoS2. The photo-generated electrons on the conduction band of TiO2 could easily transfer to the MoS2 co-catalyst, which promoted efficient charge separation and improved the photocatalytic performance.