A Unique Ternary Semiconductor–(Semiconductor/Metal) Nano‐Architecture for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

It has been along-standing demand to design heteronanostructures for charge-flow steering in semiconductor systems.Multi-component nanocrystals exhibit multifunctional properties or synergistic performance,a nd are thus attractive materials for energy conversion, medical therapy, and photoelectric catalysis applications.Herein we report the design and synthesis of binary and ternary multi-node sheath heteronanorods in as equential chemical transformation procedure. As verified by first-principles simulations,the conversion from type-I ZnS-CdS heterojunction into type-II ZnS-(CdS/metal) ensures well-steered collections of photo-generated electrons at the exposed ZnS nanorod stem and metal nanoparticles while holes at the CdS node sheaths,l eading to substantially improved photocatalytic hydrogen-evolution performance.Atn anoscale,m aterial shape and composition directly influence function.[1] Fabricating multiple components in as ingle nanosystem has recently attracted great interest as result of the multifunctional properties or synergistic performance induced by heterointerfaces of the nanostructure.[2]Multi-component nanocrystals (hetero-nanostructures) with heterojunctions,a llowing electron and hole transport and confinement to be controlled independently,form the basis of several optoelectronic applications.[3] Type-II heterojunctions, enabling accumulation of opposite charges at two sides,allow efficient electron-hole separation for optoelectronic applications.T he development of hybrid nanostructures increases the level of structural-architectural sophistication.[4] The colloidal technique,b enefitting from adjusting the energy of solution/solid interface induced by various ligands,p romotes the synthesis of elaborate hetero-nanostructures in the solution.[5]Cation exchange strategy has proven to be particularly powerful for accessing the nanocrystals which are difficult to obtain by direct hot-injection synthetic methods.[6] In particular, the partial cation-exchange reaction, which circumvents separate nucleation and transfers aportion of the nanocrystal into an ew composition, is av ersatile method to prepare heterostructured ionic nanocrystals.[7] To date,s everal heterostructured nanocrystals based on wurtize (WZ) cadmium chalcogenide have been prepared by partial cation exchange.[8] Nevertheless,t od evelop ag eneral and summative partial-exchange strategy for the synthesis of novel and well-defined multi-component metal sulfide nanocrystals remains elusive.F urthermore,t he construction of more sophisticated colloidal hetero-nanostructures with targeted performance requires ahigh degree of synthetic ingenuity and creativity.Herein, we constructed unique one-dimensional (1D) binary -[S1-S2]-S1-[S1-S2]-S1-and ternary -[S1-(S2/M)]-S1-[S1-(S2/M)]-S1-hetero-nanorods with segmented node sheaths S2 decorated by M( S1 = ZnS;S 2= CdS;M = Au, Pd, Pt) through the colloidal technique.T he ternary hybrids were prepared by the post-synthetic modification of binary multi-node sheath -[ZnS-CdS]-ZnS-[ZnS-C...

Pd-dispersed CuS hetero-nanoplates for selective hydrogenation of phenylacetylene

“…A variety of nanostructures, such as core-shell nanoparticles [5,6], heterodimers [7,8], metal-tipped nanorods [9,10], and metal island-decorated nanosheets [11], have been identified as excellent candidates for a wide range of applications. In particular, these materials are useful for photoelectric devices [12][13][14], photocatalysis [15][16][17], electrocatalysis [18][19][20], and theranostic [21] treatments. Recent investigations of metal-sulfide hybrid nanocrystals in organic catalysis have been explored creatively.…”

2D‐Layered Carbon/TiO2 Hybrids Derived from Ti3C2MXenes for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution under Visible Light Irradiation

“…Especially, photocatalytic hydrogen generation is becoming an efficient way to the splitting of water under solar light irradiation . Various semiconductors have been used as photocatalysts for hydrogen generation via using solar energy …”

Solvothermal synthesis of CdIn2S4 photocatalyst for selective photosynthesis of organic aromatic compounds under visible light

“…The photocatalytic technology has attracted much attention for the scholars of different fields since Fujishima and Honda found that TiO 2 as electrode can decompose water to produce hydrogen and oxygen in 1972 1 . With the development of photocatalytic technology, current research work mainly focuses on the degradation of organic pollutants 2 – 4 , hydrogen production in water 5 , reduction of carbon dioxide 6 , selective oxidation of different alcohols 7 , and other kinds of organic transformation reactions 8 – 10 . Among them, selective oxidation of alcohols to corresponding aldehydes without further oxidation to carboxylic acids and carbon dioxide has become a research hotspot recently 11 , 12 .…”