It is challenging to design and prepare difunctional photocatalysts for simultaneous photocatalytic wastewater purification and hydrogen (H2) energy production. In this study, a novel ternary heterostructure pholocatalyst, ZnIn2S4@SiO2@TiO2 (ZIS@SiO2@TiO2) was successfully prepared by simple sol–gel and solvothermal methods. The SiO2 nanospheres were used as a support to prevent the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles efficiently. The SiO2@TiO2 nanoparticles were uniformly inserted into the 2D-layered flowerlike ZnIn2S4 to form a ternary heterostructure that can efficiently improve the separation and transportation of photoinduced electron–hole pairs. As expected, the 150%-ZIS@SiO2@TiO2 nanocomposite exhibited an excellent rate of H2 production under simulated sunlight (618.3 μmol g–1 h–1), which was 229 and 3.3 times higher than the binary SiO2@TiO2 nanoparticles and pure ZnIn2S4. Furthermore, the degradation efficiency of methylene blue reached 99.7% during the H2 production process. These findings provided possibilities to couple energy conversion with environmental restoration.

A novel ternary 3D ZnIn₂S₄–MoS₂ microsphere/1D CdS nanorod (ZIS/MoS₂/CdS) photocatalyst was created to achieve excellent photocatalytic H₂ evolution under visible light irradiation.

No abstract

Combining different semiconductor materials with diverse geometric structures and energy level configurations is an effective strategy for constructing high-activity heterostructure photocatalyst. Using the solvothermal method, 1D TiO2 nanobelts were uniformly...

New-style smooth-faced aluminium foam plates (AFPs) covered by dense skins have been fabricated directly. AFPs with porosity ranging from 79.3 to 85.2% and with an average diameter of 2.3 to 2.7 mm are obtained via the melt foaming method. The formation mechanism of external dense skins is studied. The dense skin is composed of a cell wall of non-ruptured bubbles, a coarse region formed from ruptured bubbles and plateau borders. The fracture mechanism of AFPs is studied based on static three-point bending tests. They show that the cracked region is only observed at the centre of the experimental samples and that brittle fracture is the main fracture mechanism of these AFPs.