Abstract:
Efficient water splitting for H
2 evolution over semiconductor photocatalysts is highly attractive in the field of clean energy. It is of great significance to construct heterojunctions, among which the direct Z-scheme nanocomposite photocatalyst provides effective separation of photo-generated carriers to boost the photocatalytic performance. Herein, Z-scheme hydrated tungsten trioxide/ZnIn
2S
4 is fabricated via an
in-situ hydrothermal method where ZnIn
2S
4 nanosheets are grown on WO
3xH
2O. The close contact between WO
30.5H
2O and WO
30.33H
2O as well as ZnIn
2S
4 improve the charge carrier separation and migration in the photocatalyst, where the strong reducing electrons in the conduction band of ZnIn
2S
4 and the strong oxidizing holes in the valence band of WO
30.33H
2O are retained, leading to enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production. The obtained WO
3xH
2O/ZnIn
2S
4 shows an excellent H
2 production rate of 7200
mol g
-1 h
-1, which is 11 times higher than pure ZnIn
2S
4. To the best of our knowledge, this value is higher than most of the WO
3-based noble metal-free semiconductor photocatalysts. The improved stability and activity are attributed to the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction, which can markedly accelerate the interfacial charge separation for surface reaction. This work offers a promising strategy towards the design of an efficient Z-scheme photocatalyst to suppress electron-hole recombination and optimize redox potential.