C₆₀-Decorated CdS/TiO₂ Mesoporous Architectures with Enhanced Photostability and Photocatalytic Activity for H₂ Evolution

Abstract

Fullerene (C60) enhanced mesoporous CdS/TiO2 architectures were fabricated by an evaporation induced self-assembly route together with an ion-exchanged method. C60 clusters were incorporated into the pore wall of mesoporous CdS/TiO2 with the formation of C60 enhanced CdS/TiO2 hybrid architectures, for achieving the enhanced photostability and photocatalytic activity in H2 evolution under visible-light irradiation. Such greatly enhanced photocatalytic performance and photostability could be due to the strong combination and heterojunctions between C60 and CdS/TiO2. The as-formed C60 cluster protection layers in the CdS/TiO2 framework not only improve the light absorption capability, but also greatly accelerated the photogenerated electron transfer to C60 clusters for H2 evolution.