LAUSR

Abstract As a promising green chemical technology, solar-energy-driven photocatalysis has attracted great attentions. Herein, tungsten carbide (WC) hollow spheres with a surface area of 396.3 m2 g−1 were successfully fabricated, and used to support CdS nanoparticles (∼5 nm) to form a noble-metal-free CdS/WC photocatalyst. CdS/WC exhibits high abilities in absorbing visible light which is the main part of the sunlight (44%) and in separating the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The H2 evolution rate in the visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2O splitting on CdS/WC (1331.7 μmol h−1) is much higher than those on the photocatalysts formed by combining the CdS nanoparticles with WC nanoparticles (739.6 μmol h−1) and with Pt nanoparticles (556.3 μmol h−1). The enhanced electron-hole separation and subsequent transfer of the charge carriers on CdS/WC is responsible for the higher H2 evolution rate on CdS/WC. These results are helpful for preparing noble-metal-free photocatalysts for more efficient photocatalysis.