Improved visible-light activities of nanocrystalline CdS by coupling with ultrafine NbN with lattice matching for hydrogen evolution

Metallic ultrafine NbN with lattice matching to nanocrystalline CdS could replace the expensive platinum for efficiently trapping photogenerated electrons, enhancing charge separation and then activating the preferentially adsorbed H2O to produce H2, mainly confirmed by Kelvin probe experiments, Mott–Schottky plots, amount of ˙OH produced, electrochemical experiments and density-functional-theory calculations.