Cadmium sulfide, with its narrow band gap, can be used as a photocatalyst in the visible light region for the splitting of water, but its limited number of active sites and tendency to agglomerate are problematic for producing high yields of hydrogen. Therefore, an inverse emulsion polymerization method was used to fabricate polyacrylamide (PAM) microgels as a substrate to immobilize CdS nanoparticles (PAM-CdS). The PAM microgels not only immobilized the CdS nanoparticles, but also prevented aggregation. N-Cd bonds in the PAM-CdS microgels facilitated electron transfer from the PAM to the CdS resulting in more electrons participating in the H-2 production process. The electrostatic interactions between the PAM and CdS also hindered the recombination of electron-hole pairs. These PAM-CdS microgels exhibit admirable photocatalytic H-2 production performance with a H-2 production rate of up to 5.21 mmol h(-1) g(-1). (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.