MoS ₂ ‐Based Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production: Progress, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

ABSTRACT

The increasing global energy demand has driven significant interest in photocatalytic hydrogen production as a promising and potentially cost‐effective approach to sustainable energy. Hydrogen evolution efficiency strongly depends on the photocatalyst, which should have a large specific surface area and efficient charge separation and transport. Among various candidates, molybdenum disulfide (MoS ₂ ), a two‐dimensional layered material with excellent optical and electrical characteristics, has emerged as a promising material for visible‐light‐driven H ₂ evolution. However, pristine MoS ₂ suffers from rapid charge carrier recombination, limited light harvesting, a deficiency of active sites, and sluggish charge transfer, resulting in relatively low H ₂ ‐production efficiency. Moreover, its stability, especially under irradiation, needs further improvement. To address these limitations, the formation of various heterojunctions and the use of cocatalysts have been proposed. An ideal cocatalyst (e.g., deposits of noble metals) offers abundant active sites, high specific surface area, good conductivity, and strong catalytic properties. This review summarizes recent progress in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using MoS ₂ and its composites with various materials, including metal oxides, graphene, carbon nanotubes, graphitic carbon nitride, polymers, covalent‐organic frameworks (COF), metal–organic frameworks (MOF), metal sulfides, and perovskite. The challenges and future perspectives are also discussed to guide the development of efficient MoS ₂ ‐based photocatalytic systems.