It is well known that precious metals decoration strategies can effectively improve the charge separation efficiency. Unfortunately, the high price limits their large-scale application. Nevertheless, the cheap transition metal Bi has a similar effect as precious metals. Therefore, we take a simple solvothermal method to reduce and aggregate Bi into bismuth nano-spheres (Bi). CdS nanorods were modified with Bi spheres to create a hybrid material called x% Bi–CdS, which combines a metal and a semiconductor for photocatalytic hydrogen production. The results of the experiment indicate that the hydrogen evolution rate of the 5% Bi–CdS sample is 1501.52 μmol g h, which is 4.2 times greater than that of pure CdS nanorods. This significant enhancement in photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the presence of Bi spheres, which induce a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. This effect boosts the absorption of visible light and enhances the separation efficiency of charge carriers. The study not only provides a solution for the preparation of low-cost CdS-based materials, but also confirms the feasibility of inexpensive Bi metals to replace precious metals as co-catalysts to improve the photocatalytic efficiency.

中文翻译：

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非贵金属Bi球修饰的CdS纳米棒用于光催化制氢

众所周知，贵金属修饰策略可以有效提高电荷分离效率。不幸的是，高昂的价格限制了它们的大规模应用。然而，廉价的过渡金属Bi具有与贵金属类似的作用。因此，我们采用简单的溶剂热方法将Bi还原并聚集成铋纳米球（Bi）。用 Bi 球对 CdS 纳米棒进行改性，创造出一种名为 x% Bi-CdS 的混合材料，它结合了金属和半导体，用于光催化制氢。实验结果表明，5% Bi-CdS 样品的析氢速率为 1501.52 μmol g·h，是纯 CdS 纳米棒的 4.2 倍。光催化活性的显着增强可归因于Bi球的存在，其诱导表面等离子共振（SPR）效应。这种效应增强了可见光的吸收并提高了载流子的分离效率。该研究不仅为低成本CdS基材料的制备提供了解决方案，而且证实了廉价的Bi金属替代贵金属作为助催化剂提高光催化效率的可行性。