Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production And Electrochemical Properties Of TiO₂@ReS₂ Nanocomposites

Titanium dioxide/transition metal sulfide composites（TiO₂/TMD）have attracted extensive attention and research in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen production and electrochemical energy storage due to their good matching relationship and excellent optical and electrochemical properties.However,when the TMD material represented by molybdenum disulfide（MoS₂） is combined with TiO₂ and used for photocatalytic hydrogen production,the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity need to be further improved due to the low intrinsic conductivity of the TMD material such as MoS₂ and limited exposure active sites.On the other hand,due to the strong inter-layer van der Waals force of common TMD materials such as MoS₂,which is combined with TiO₂ and used in battery anode materials,powdering,agglomeration,and shedding occur during battery cycling,thus resulting in serious electrode capacity and Life decay.As a new type of TMD material,antimony disulfide（ReS₂） has a stable distorted 1T structure,weak interlayer van der Waals force and high electrical conductivity,so it has great research and application prospects in photocatalysis and energy storage.Therefore,in this paper,TiO₂@ReS₂ nanocomposites were prepared by hydrothermal method with different structures of TiO₂ as the substrate,so as to synergize the advantages of the two to optimize their optical and electrochemical properties through the structural and interface performance regulation,and the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity and sodium storage performance are finally improved.It shows that ReS₂ with distorted 1T structure provides a large number of catalytic sites on both the edge and basal plane,moreover,it is combined with TiO₂ by chemical bonds,and the band gap is matched to greatly promote the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers.As a result,the optimized TiO₂@ReS₂ photocatalysts with 30wt%ReS₂ have the best structural appearance and interface properties,and exhibit an apparent quantum efficiency of 46.76%under 380 nm monochromatic ultraviolet light,thus achieve a surpassing photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity with a rate of 1404μmol h^-1 g^-1.TiO₂ nanotube@ReS₂ nanosheet composites with 1D core-shell structure prepared by using TiO₂ nanotubes as substrate（1D TiO₂-NT@ReS₂-NS）exhibit excellent electrochemical performance due to the unique core-shell structure,positive synergistic effect,tight interfacial bonding and excellent structural stability.It exhibits a stable cycling performance of 261 mAhg^-1 at 0.2 Ag^-1 after 100 cycles,along with an ultralow fading of 0.16%per cycle.Even after 1000 cycles at 1 Ag^-1,it can maintain 118 m Ahg^-1.Therefore,it has great development potential in the field of sodium ion batteries.