Cocatalysts play an important role in the field of photocatalysis by providing active sites and reducing reaction barriers to increase the reaction rates. However, efficient cocatalysts usually contain expensive noble metals, such as platinum. It is thus of great significance for practical applications in developing low-cost cocatalysts in photocatalysis. In this contribution, we reported a new cocatalyst nickel thiocarbonate (NiCS3) of ZnIn2S4 photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It was found that the hydrogen production rate of the NiCS3/ZnIn2S4 composite can reach 15.4 mmol·h-1·g-1 under visible light when NiCS3 is composited with ZnIn2S4, which is more than three times that of the HER performance of ZnIn2S4 alone. The theoretical calculations suggested that the improvement of HER performance is rooted in the built-in electric fields in the NiCS3/ZnIn2S4 composite. The abundant Ni active sites in the NiCS3/ZnIn2S4 composite not only promote the separation and migration of photoinduced carriers but also allow a suitable Gibbs free energy of adsorbed H* (ΔGH*). This study indicated that NiCS3 has great potential to replace noble metals as a promising cocatalyst of ZnIn2S4 for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.
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