One-pot synthesis of MoS 2 /CdS nanosphere heterostructures for efficient H 2 evolution under visible light irradiation Lei-Lei Li a , Xing-Liang Yin a,* , Dong-Hui Pang a , Xin-Xin Du a , Han Xue b , Hua-Wei Zhou a , Qing-Xia Yao a , Huai-Wei Wang a , Jun-Chao Qian c , Jie Yang a , Da-Cheng Li a , Jian-Min Dou a a Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059, PR China b College of Chemical Engineering, Daqing Normal University, Daqing, 163712, PR China c Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Environment Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, PR China highlights graphical abstract The MoS 2 /CdS nano- heterostructures were synthesized by using one-pot approach. The H 2 evolution rate of MoS 2 /CdS is 162 times higher than that of pristine CdS. The extraordinary performance is attributed to the well-defined heterostructures. The photocatalytic mechanism was detailedly investigated. article info Article history: Received 4 June 2019 Received in revised form 28 August 2019 Accepted 10 October 2019 Available online xxx Keywords: One-pot synthesis Heterostructures abstract Exploration of cost-efficient and high-performance photocatalyst for H 2 evolution by using a facile approach is of great importance. In this manuscript, a facile one-pot method was employed to fabricate MoS 2 /CdS heterostructures with MoS 2 intimately grown on the surface of CdS resulting in the formation of well-defined heterostructures. Screen experi- ment reveals the optimized photocatalytic H 2 evolution performance of MoS 2 /CdS is far exceeding that of pristine CdS by a factor of more than 162. The outstanding performance can be ascribed to the formation of heterostructures which accelerate charge trans- portation and separation, and the MoS 2 serving as a cocatalyst for the decrease of H 2 overpotential. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism of the MoS 2 /CdS was carefully * Corresponding author. E-mail address: xingliangyin@126.com (X.-L. Yin). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.10.056 0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Li L-L et al., One-pot synthesis of MoS 2 /CdS nanosphere heterostructures for efficient H 2 evolution under visible light irradiation, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.10.056