Ta 3 N 5 nanorods encapsulated into 3D hydrangea-like MoS 2 for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation.

Tantalum nitride (Ta ₃ N ₅ ) with an appealing band gap (∼2.1 eV) has emerged as a promising catalyst in the photocatalysis field. However, Ta ₃ N ₅ application in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is limited due to disadvantages such as unsatisfactory separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers. Here we utilize MoS ₂ as co-catalysts to promote the kinetics of photocatalytic H ₂ evolution over Ta ₃ N ₅ . The Ta ₃ N ₅ nanorods were encapsulated into 3D hydrangea-like MoS ₂ for maximizing the contact areas between Ta ₃ N ₅ and MoS ₂ and offering rich active sites. More importantly, spectroscopic analysis and theoretical calculations consistently reveal that the unique interfacial interaction, as well as the matching band alignment between Ta ₃ N ₅ and MoS ₂ , accelerates the photogenerated charge extraction from Ta ₃ N ₅ to MoS ₂ , reducing charge recombination losses in Ta ₃ N ₅ . Thus, the optimized Ta ₃ N ₅ /MoS ₂ hybrid exhibits a substantially enhanced hydrogen evolution rate (56.5 μmol h ^-1 ), over 22 times higher than that of pristine Ta ₃ N ₅ . This work may provide a general strategy to overcome the low photocatalytic activity of nitrides for hydrogen evolution.