In-Situ Construction of Ohmic/Schottky-Type MoS2/Sv-ZnIn2S4/Cu(OH)2 Dual-Junction Photocatalysts with Boosting Water Splitting into Hydrogen Generation Activity

Abstract

Exploring visible-light-driven photocatalytic materials for water splitting has high demand in achieving green and renewable hydrogen fuels. In this work, MoS2/Sv-ZnIn2S4/Cu(OH)2 (MS/Sv-ZIS/COH) dual-junction composites for hydrogen generation were constructed via an in-situ structure-tailored technique. Based on the in-situ decomposition of Cu3Mo2O9 (CMO), the instantaneous formation of sulfur vacancy (Sv), Ohmic-type MS/Sv-ZIS heterojunction and Schottky-type Sv-ZIS/COH heterojunction not only markedly boosted the carrier separation and quickly expedited the charge transfer, but also efficiently inhibited charge recombination and significantly accelerated the hydrogen reduction dynamics. As a result, such composites exhibited an optimum hydrogen production rate of 11.5 mmol‧h−1‧g−1, which was approximately 4.6 times higher than that of pristine ZIS. This work provides an in-situ design method to construct new photocatalytic materials in accelerating the redox dynamics and enhancing the water splitting performance.