Carbon dots decorated vertical SnS2 nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic oxygen evolution

Abstract

Metal sulfides are highly desirable materials for photocatalytic water splitting because of their appropriate energy bands. However, the poor stability under light illumination in water hinders their wide applications. Here, two-dimensional SnS2 nanosheets, along with carbon dots of the size around 10 nm, are uniformly grown on fluorine doped tin oxide glasses with a layer of nickel nanoparticles. Significantly, strong light absorption and enhanced photocurrent density are achieved after integration of SnS2 nanosheets with carbon dots. Notably, the rate of oxygen evolution reached up to 1.1 mmol g-1 h-1 under simulated sunlight irradiation featuring a good stability.