文摘
To develop catalysts that are efficient and stable under aggressive catalytic conditions, we detail a synthetic approach to producing zinc-blende cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocubes (NCs), a metastable CdS polymorph that is terminated by coordinated facets. The hydrogen generation activity of these CdS NCs (∼11.6 mmol g<sup>–1sup> h<sup>–1sup>) was nearly 4 times higher than that of wurtzite CdS nanoparticles (∼2.7 mmol g<sup>–1sup> h<sup>–1sup>) and 2 times higher than that of irregularly shaped zinc-blende CdS nanoparticles (∼5.9 mmol g<sup>–1sup> h<sup>–1sup>). Furthermore, the NCs also exhibited much improved long-term performance compared to the performance of these controlled photocatalysts. Finally, the density functional theory calculation and site-specific Au photodeposition demonstrate that the improved activity and stability can be attributed to the enhanced charge-flow steering and coordinated facet terminations.