Accelerated Charge Transfer through Interface Chemical Bonds in MoS/TiO for Photocatalytic Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to H.

Solar photocatalytic H production from lignocellulosic biomass has attracted great interest, but it suffers from low photocatalytic efficiency owing to the absence of highly efficient photocatalysts. Herein, we designed and constructed ultrathin MoS-modified porous TiO microspheres (MT) with abundant interface Ti-S bonds as photocatalysts for photocatalytic H generation from lignocellulosic biomass. Owing to the accelerated charge transfer related to Ti-S bonds, as well as the abundant active sites for both H and OH generation, respectively, related to the high exposed edge of MoS and the large specific surface area of TiO, MT photocatalysts demonstrate good performance in the photocatalytic conversion of α-cellulose and lignocellulosic biomass to H. The highest H generation rate of 849 μmol·g·h and apparent quantum yield of 4.45% at 380 nm was achieved in α-cellulose aqueous solution for the optimized MT photocatalyst. More importantly, lignocellulosic biomass of corncob, rice hull, bamboo, polar wood chip, and wheat straw were successfully converted to H over MT photocatalysts with H generation rate of 10, 19, 36, 29, and 8 μmol·g·h, respectively. This work provides a guiding design approach to develop highly active photocatalysts via interface engineering for solar H production from lignocellulosic biomass.