Near-infrared (NIR) light utilization in the photoreduction of water to H₂ remains a great challenge. Here we show an interesting design of NIR-driven photocatalyst via a two-photon absorption process by exploiting the electron-storage peculiarity of oxygen-deficient WO₃. In the core-shell structured WO₃/CdS, the WO₃ core absorbs ultraviolet (UV)-visible and NIR photons successively and transfer excited electrons to the UV-visible light activated CdS shell for H₂ generation. The core-shell structure effectively hinders the consumption of the photo-generated charges on the surface of WO₃. With the absence of cocatalyst, the WO₃/CdS heterojunction presents an unprecedented H₂ generation rate of 65.98 and 14.84 mmol g^–1 h^–1 under solar light irradiation and in the NIR region, respectively. The solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency under simulated solar light irradiation reaches as high as 3.00 %. This work proposes a new approach to profiting the electron-storing WO₃-like materials for designing solar light activated photocatalysts.

在水的光还原为H _2中使用近红外（NIR）光仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在这里，我们通过利用缺氧的WO ₃的电子存储特性，展示了一种通过双光子吸收过程由NIR驱动的光催化剂的有趣设计。在核-壳结构的WO ₃ / CdS中，WO ₃核依次吸收紫外（UV）可见光和NIR光子，并将激发的电子转移到UV-可见光激活的CdS壳中以产生H ₂。核-壳结构有效地阻碍了WO ₃表面上光生电荷的消耗。在没有助催化剂的情况下，WO ₃/ CdS异质结在太阳光照射下和近红外区域分别呈现出前所未有的H ₂生成速率，分别为65.98和14.84 mmol g ^–1 h ^–1。在模拟太阳光照射下，太阳到氢的转换效率高达3.00％。这项工作提出了一种新的方法来获利，以设计电子存储类WO ₃的材料来设计太阳光活化的光催化剂。