Interstitial carbon doped of setaria viridis-like Znln2S4 hollow tubes for efficient the performance of photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

In the photocatalytic water splitting hydrogen production system, the key to efficient use of solar energy is to choose a suitable photocatalyst. As an important ternary sulfide, ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) has attracted wide attention because of its narrow band gap (Eg = 2.3–2.8 eV) and wide light absorption range. However, further modification was still needed. Therefore, in this work, the unique C/ZIS hollow tubes with nano-flakes were prepared by a simple solvothermal method. To a large extent, this unique structure increased the utilization of light and active sites. Moreover, the dissolution of PAN during the solvothermal process caused the carbon element to be uniformly doped into the hollow tube framework. After a series of characterization results, C/ZIS-3.0 has the best hydrogen release rate (1241.94 μmol g−1 h−1) and good cyclability under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 420 nm). And its unique morphology and possible catalytic mechanism were further discussed.