Rational construction of multiple interfaces in ternary heterostructure for efficient spatial separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers in the application of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

The design of efficient and stable photocatalyst plays a critical role in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting. Herein, we develop a novel ZnS/CdS/ZnO ternary heterostructure by the in-situ sulfuration of CdS/ZnO, which includes four contact interfaces: CdS-ZnS interface, ZnS-ZnO interface, CdS-ZnO interface and ZnS-CdS-ZnO ternary interface, forming three charge carrier-transfer modes (type-I, type-II and direct Z-scheme) through five carrier-transfer pathways. As a result, the separation and transfer of photoexcited electron-hole pairs are promoted significantly, resulting in a high hydrogen evolution rate of 44.70 mmol h−1 g−1, which is 2, 3.7 and 8 times higher than those of binary heterostructures, CdS/ZnO, CdS/ZnS and ZnS/ZnO, respectively, and 26.5, 280 and 298 times higher than those of single CdS, ZnO and ZnS, respectively. As a counterpart ternary heterostructure, CdS/ZnS/ZnO contains only two interfaces: CdS-ZnS interface and ZnS-ZnO interface, which form two charge carrier-transfer modes (type-I and type-II) through two carrier-transfer pathways, leading to its much lower hydrogen evolution rate (27.25 mmol h−1 g−1) than ZnS/CdS/ZnO ternary heterostructure. This work is relevant for understanding the charge-transfer pathways between multi-interfaces in multicomponent heterojunctions.