Recently, the emergence of photoactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has given great prospects for their applications as photocatalytic materials in visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution. Herein, a highly photoactive visible-light-driven material for H evolution was prepared by introducing methylthio terephthalate into a MOF lattice via solvent-assisted ligand-exchange method. Accordingly, a first methylthio-functionalized porous MOF decorated with Pt co-catalyst for efficient photocatalytic H evolution was achieved, which exhibited a high quantum yield (8.90 %) at 420 nm by use sacrificial triethanolamine. This hybrid material exhibited perfect H production rate as high as 3814.0 μmol g h , which even is one order of magnitude higher than that of the state-of-the-art Pt/MOF photocatalyst derived from aminoterephthalate.

The introduction of a piezoelectric field has been proven a promising method to enhance photocatalytic activity by preventing photoelectron-hole recombination. However, the formation of a piezoelectric field requires additional mechanical force or high-frequency ultrasonic baths, which limits its potential application on industrial scale. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to design the catalyst that can harvest the discrete energy such as the fluid mechanical energy to form the electric field. Herein, PZT/TiO catalyst with a core-shell configuration was prepared by a simple coating method. By collecting the mechanical energy of water, an internal piezoelectric field was induced. Under 800 rpm stirring, transient photocurrent measured on PZT/TiO electrode is about 1.7 times higher than that of 400 rpm. Correspondingly, the photocatalytic degradation rate and mineralization efficiency of RhB, BPA, phenol, p-chlorophenol much improved, showing the promoting effect of piezoelectric field generated directly from harvesting the discrete fluid mechanical energy.

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Exploring TiO 2 -photocatalysts for sunlight conversion has high demand in artificial photosynthesis. In this work, edge-enriched ultrathin molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) flakes are uniformly embedded into the bulk of yolk-shell TiO 2 as a cocatalyst to accelerate photogeneratedelectron transfer from the bulk to the surface of TiO 2 . The as-formed MoS 2 /TiO 2 (0.14 wt%) hybrids exhibit a high hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of 2443 μmol g −1 h −1 , about 1000% and 470% of that of pristine TiO 2 (247 μmol g −1 h −1 ) and bulk MoS 2 decorated TiO 2 (513 μmol g −1 h −1 ). Such a greatly enhanced HER is attributed to the exposed catalytic edges of the ultrathin MoS 2 flakes with a robust chemical linkage (TiS bond), providing rapid charge transfer channels between TiO 2 and MoS 2 . The catalytic stability is promoted by the antiaggregation of the highly dispersed MoS 2 flakes in the bulk of yolk-shell TiO 2 . The exponential fitted decay kinetics of time-resolved photoluminescence (ns-PL) spectra illustrates that embedding ultrathin MoS 2 flakes in TiO 2 effectively decreases the average lifetime of PL in the MoS 2 /TiO 2 hybrids (τ ave = 4.55 ns), faster than that of pristine TiO 2 (≈7.17 ns) and the bulk MoS 2 /TiO 2 (≈6.13 ns), allowing a superior charge separation and charge trapping process for reducing water.

A microwave-induced metal dissolution strategy is developed for in situ synthesis of copper nanowires/ZnS (CuNWs/ZnS) hybrids with core-shell structure. The CuNWs are used as microwave antennas to create local "super-hot" surfaces to further initiate ZnS crystallization with full coverage on CuNWs. With the help of S 2− , the hot metal surface further results in the CuNWs dissolution with promoted Cu + diffusion and incorporation into the ZnS lattice. With the narrowed bandgap of ZnS and the strongly coupled interface between CuNWs and ZnS created by microwaves, the as-prepared hybrid composites exhibit an enhanced activity and stability in visible light for the photocatalytic H 2 evolution. The corresponding H 2 evolution rate reaches up to 10722 µmol h −1 g −1 with apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of 69% under 420 nm LED irradiation, showing a remarkably high AQE among the noblemetal free visible light-driven photocatalysts and demonstrating a promising potential in practical applications to deal with the energy crisis.