Latest Progress on Photocatalytic H₂ Production by Water Splitting and H₂ Production Coupled with Selective Oxidation of Organics over ZnIn₂S₄-Based Photocatalysts

Abstract

Semiconductor photocatalysis has demonstrated a promising potential in solving the energy crisis and environmental pollution. In the past few years, hexagonal ZnIn 2 S 4 has received increasing attention in photocatalysis due to its relatively narrow band gap, strong reducing power for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), excellent chemical stability, nontoxicity, as well as low cost. This Review summarizes the latest advances of ZnIn 2 S 4 -based photocatalysts for the conversion of solar energy to hydrogen production, accompanied by selective organic oxidation to obtain value-added chemicals and organic pollute degradation. First, the basic crystal structure, photoelectric properties, and preparation methods of ZnIn 2 S 4 are briefly introduced. Three typical kinds of modification strategies including defect engineering, cocatalyst loading, and heterojunction fabrication then are summarized. As for the photocatalytic activity, besides the conventional HER in the presence of hole capturers, we have highlighted the developments of ZnIn 2 S 4 -based photocatalysts for H 2 production via overall water splitting, and H 2 production coupled with selective oxidization of organics and with degradation of organic pollutes. Last, some challenges that ZnIn 2 S 4 would face to realize application in solar energy conversion and environmental protection are presented.

In situ construction of Ohmic/Schottky-type MoS2/Sv-ZnIn2S4/Cu(OH)2 dual-junction photocatalysts with enhanced water splitting into hydrogen generation activity

“…Specically, ternary zinc indium sulde (ZnIn 2 S 4 , denoted as ZIS) is regarded as one of the most promising target photocatalysts for solar-to-hydrogen conversion due to its intrinsic advantages, such as unique electronic properties, suitable band-edge positions, attractive visible-light harvesting ability, relatively large redox potentials, etc. [9][10][11] Nevertheless, fast carrier recombination and sluggish charge dynamics of the hydrogen reduction reaction hinder its practical application. [12][13][14] Additionally, the inherent stacking feature due to the self-assembled aggregation markedly reduces the exposed active sites of the (110) facet and severely deteriorates the photocatalytic activity.…”

Metalloporphyrin modified defective TiO2 porous cages with the enhanced photocatalytic activity for coupling of hydrogen generation and tetracycline removal

“…[17][18][19] However, instead of the traditional redox process, if the half-reaction of oxygen reduction is replaced by solar-to-fuel conversion, it is possible to achieve the simultaneous occurrence of solar fuel synthesis and organic pollutant degradation in the same photocatalytic system. 20,21 Therefore, by using the contaminated water from tetracycline as feedstock, the mitigation of the pharmaceutical pollutant together with the generation of hydrogen as a green fuel may be achieved. In contrast to kinetically sluggish water oxidation half reaction leading to easy recombination of the photo-generated electron-hole pair, tetracycline as sacricial electron donors enable rapid consumption of holes, beneting for highefficiency photocatalytic hydrogen generation.…”