Synergetic Hybridization Effect of Homogeneously Mixed Inorganic and Graphene Nanosheets on the Photocatalytic Activity of Semiconductor

Using the homogeneous colloidal mixture of conductive metal oxide nanosheet (NS) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) NS as hybridization matrices provides universal way of optimizing the photocatalyst functionality of semiconductor nanocrystals. A self-assembly between CdS quantum dots (QDs) and RuO2/rGO NSs yields strongly coupled ternary nanohybrids with enhanced photocatalytic activity and increased porosity. Even with its lower RuO2 content, the ternary CdS-RuO2/rGO nanohybrid exhibits notably higher photocatalytic activities for visible-light-induced H-2 evolution and photocurrent generation than binary CdS-RuO2/rGO homologues, underscoring the synergetic hybridization effect of flexible rGO and hydrophilic RuO2 NSs. In comparison with single RuO2/rGO NSs, their homogeneous mixture can play better roles of photosensitizers and cocatalysts, which is mainly responsible for remarkable improvement of photocatalytic activity upon the cohybridization with mixed RuO2/rGO NSs. The current study underscores that cohybridization with complementary inorganic and graphene NSs can provide an efficient and economically feasible methodology to explore novel high-performance catalyst materials.