Noble-metal-free hexagonal wurtzite CdS nanoplates with exposed (110) and (112) crystal facets for efficient visible-light H2 production

Hexagonal wurtzite CdS has been regarded as one of the most promising semiconductor for photocatalysis. However, its water splitting performance under visible-light irradiation is seriously limited due to the high charge carriers recombination. In order to solve this limitation, we facilely prepared a 2D hexagonal wurtzite CdS nanoplate (HWCs) with exposed (110) and (112) crystal facets via water bath strategy. The visible-light responsibility of HWCs exhibited an obvious red shift and, accordingly, the band gap was narrowed from 2.31 to 2.12 eV. Besides, HWCs showed an excellent visible-light H2 evolution rate of ca. 6214.5 μmol h-1g-1 without cocatalysts due to the enhanced charge carrier’s separation between (110) and (112) crystal facets. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism for HWCs was tentatively proposed. This work would be beneficial to design and fabricate powerful mono-component photocatalyst.