Preparation of TiO2/MoSe2 heterostructure composites by a solvothermal method and their photocatalytic hydrogen production performance

Abstract TiO2/MoSe2 composite photocatalysts were prepared by a solvothermal method using different MoSe2 loadings on the surface of TiO2 to improve the catalytic activity. Upon increasing the MoSe2 loading, the fluorescence intensity of the catalyst gradually decreased, indicating that the MoSe2 loading increased the utilization of photogenerated carriers in TiO2 and improved the catalytic activity. The formic acid produced by the oxidation of lactic acid and methanol dissociated into oxygen-containing anions that were electrostatically adsorbed on the catalyst surfaces. During photocatalysis, the photogenerated electrons on TiO2 were transferred to MoSe2, which separated the photogenerated electrons and holes and increased the quantum efficiency. Therefore, the hydrogen production rate of the composite catalyst was higher than that of pure TiO2, with a quantum efficiency of about 36.8%.