Recent advances in synthetic methods and applications of Ag2S-based heterostructure photocatalysts

Abstract

Ag₂S-Based heterostructures, coupling the narrow band-gap semiconductor, Ag₂S, and other wide band-gap semiconductors, have shown excellent photocatalytic performance in the fields of environmental pollution protection and energy conversion in recent years. In this work, we briefly traced the recent literature on fabrications and photocatalytic applications of Ag₂S-based heterostructures and presented a review. In the text, we surveyed several synthetic methods of Ag₂S-based heterostructures including the colloidal synthetic method, chemical bath deposition method, in situ ion exchange method, hydrothermal method and other methods; furthermore, we introduced some achievements on Ag₂S-based heterostructures such as binary type-I heterostructures, binary type-II heterostructures and Ag₂S-based multi-component heterostructures as well as their performances in the fields of degradation of organic pollutants and hydrogen evolution. Based on semiconductor physics and chemistry theory, some insights and suggestions were provided on the synthetic methods, material structures and photocatalysis mechanism of the heterostructures. We expect that this review can provide a guideline to the researchers working on Ag₂S-based heterostructures for photocatalysis.