High-throughput Production of ZnO-MoS(2)-Graphene Heterostructures for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

High-throughput production of highly efficient photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution remains a considerable challenge for materials scientists. Here, we produced extremely uniform high-quality graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) nanoplatelets through the electrochemical-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation, out of which we subsequently fabricated MoS(2)/graphene van der Waals heterostructures. Ultimately, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were deposited into these two-dimensional heterostructures to produce an artificial ZnO/MoS(2)/graphene nanocomposite. This new composite experimentally exhibited an excellent photocatalytic efficiency in hydrogen evolution under the sunlight illumination ([Formula: see text]), owing to the extremely high electron mobilities in graphene nanoplatelets and the significant visible-light absorptions of MoS(2). Moreover, due to the synergistic effects in MoS(2) and graphene, the lifetime of excited carriers increased dramatically, which considerably improved the photocatalytic efficiency of the ZnO/MoS(2)/graphene heterostructure. We conclude that the novel artificial heterostructure presented here shows great potential for the high-efficient photocatalytic hydrogen generation and the high throughput production of visible-light photocatalysts for industrial applications.