Light-triggered evolution of molecular clusters toward sub-nanoscale heterojunctions with high interface density

Abstract

Herein, we report a simple, yet highly effective approach for constructing a new type of sub-nanoscale ZnS/ZnO heterojunction (∼2–4 nm) with highly rich interfaces by photoetching hybrid Zn–S–O molecular clusters. The obtained ZnS/ZnO heterojunctions with ZnS spheres decorated with ultrasmall amorphous ZnO dots exhibit superior photocatalytic performance (∼94.0 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹), compared to nanoscale homologous samples obtained via conventional heat treatment (∼17.0–21.4 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹). Such a light-triggered molecular-cluster-to-heterojunction strategy provides a synthetic approach to building other sub-nanoscale hetero-structured materials for further promoting the catalytic-related applications.