Conversion of H2S Dangerous Pollutant to Hydrogen Fuel and Sulfur Element Using Bi2S3 Photocatalyst

Hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous and lethal gas for living creatures that is produced industrially/naturally on large scale on the globe. The current route to eliminate this plentiful/perilous hazardous material is Claus industrial process that converts H2S into sulfur, generates SOx/NOx harmful by-products and ignores/oxidizes the H2 fuel stored in this chemical. Photocatalytic degradation/transformation of H2S to hydrogen clean fuel and valuable sulfur element is a modern and green as well as alternative strategy for the current Claus approach, which can be effectually employed in the conversion of H2S noxious pollutant into H2+S. To this end, the design and synthesis of effective, eco-friendly, low-price photocatalyst materials are highly in demand. Herein, through a facile hydrothermal route, an n-type mesoporous sulfide semiconducting material with strong ability of photons absorption in the UV-Vis. the spectral region was synthesized and successfully applied for the photo splitting reaction of the alkaline H2S-containing medium to generate H2 fuel and S element. Furthermore, the photo-transformation phenomenon was interpreted from a mechanistic standpoint and the energy diagram revealed that the photocatalyst material synthesized here, viz. bismuth sulfide had a suitable band structure to reduce proton and oxidize bisulfide anion, which could eventually evolve hydrogen gas and produce the sulfur product.