A novel two-dimensional α-Fe 2 O 3 /sulfur-doped polyimide (FO/SPI) direct Z-scheme photocatalyst was successfully constructed by a facile thermal treatment method. The effects of α-Fe 2 O 3 nanosheets on the morphology, chemical structure, and photoelectronic properties of FO/SPI composites were systematically characterized by different spectroscopic means. These methods include X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transient fluorescence spectra, and so forth. It was confirmed that the small amounts of α-Fe 2 O 3 can availably facilitate exfoliation of bulk SPI, resulting in a transformation of SPI from bulk to 2D layered composite that illustrates tight interface through the coordination Fe–N bond and an all-solid-state direct Z-scheme junction. Thus, the transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole pairs were significantly enhanced, which greatly promoted improvement of the photocatalytic activity of the FO/SPI composite for methyl orange degradation under solar light. This work provides a new approach to constructing efficient inorganic–organic Z-scheme photocatalyst based on strong interface interaction.

Photocatalytic technology has broad applications in energy and environmental science. In this study, we synthesized a type II heterojunction CdS/ZnO nanodispersion by means of one-pot precipitation. Different from previous studies,...

In this study, a novel direct Z-scheme SnS2 quantum dots/sulfur-doped polyimide (SQDs/SPI) photocatalyst was firstly fabricated by an in situ crystallization growth of SnS2 quantum dots on sulfur-doped polyimide through a facile hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 5SQDs/SPI samples reached 3526 μmoL g−1 in the coexistence of triethanolamine and methanol used as hole sacrificial agents, which is about 13 times higher than that of SPI under the same conditions and 42 times higher than that of SPI only as a hole sacrificial agent. The improvement can be related to the direct Z-scheme charge transfer in the tight interface between SQDs and SPI, which promoted rapid separation and significantly prolonged the lifetime of photoexcited carriers. The Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism was proposed. This discovery comes up with a new strategy for the development of an efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable sulfide quantum dots/polymer non-noble metal photocatalyst.