Visible light-driven the splitting of ethanol into hydrogen and acetaldehyde catalyzed by fibrous AgNPs/CdS hybrids at room temperature

The selective oxidation of organic molecules is a vital and practical process in chemical industry. In this work, we report a facile route for the fabrication of AgNPs/CdS hybrid photocatalyst, which can selectively split ethanol into H-2 and acetaldehyde at room temperature. Compare with pure CdS, the AgNPs/CdS hybrids demonstrate over 40 times enhancement of photocatalytic ethanol dehydrogenation under the same conditions, which can be attributed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of AgNPs and the formation of Mott Schottky heterojunction at the interface between CdS and AgNPs. The AgNPs/CdS hybrids presented in this work provide a photochemical example that achieves light-driven ethanol splitting into H-2 and acetaldehyde, which is highly desired to green chemistry, low-carbon society, and sustainable development. (C) 2019 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.