Controllable sulphur vacancies confined in nanoporous ZnS nanoplates for visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Controllable sulphur vacancies (Sv) confined in nanoporous ZnS nanoplates (Sv-ZnS) were prepared successfully, via rapid heat treatment of ZnS(en)0.5 nanoplates. Sv with controllable concentrations originated from in-situ doping of N...

Defect‐Enriched ZnO/ZnS Heterostructures Derived from Hydrozincite Intermediates for Hydrogen Evolution under Visible Light

“…For ZnS-400 and ZnS, the presence of V S/ZnS suggests these V S/ZnS are initially formed during hydrothermal sulfidation. [4,52] Specifically, although the EPR signal positions of V S/ZnS and V Zn/ZnO are overlapped at g = 2.002, this EPR peak for ZnO/ZnS(0.8)-400 sample can be attributed to three parts. There are the V Zn/ZnO from a small amount of ZnO without sulfidation, V S/ZnS from ZnS, and V Zn/ZnO from hydrozincite-derived ZnO.…”

“…[1,2] ZnS and ZnO are typical II-VI wide bandgap semiconductors, which enables them to effectively generate photocarriers and exhibit photocatalytic activity under UV-light excitation. [3][4][5] However, the disadvantages of these materials, such as low solar efficiency and easy recombination of photogenerated carriers, greatly inhibit their application in photocatalysis. [6,7] Therefore, in recent years, several chemical or physical methods have been proposed to construct ZnO/ZnS heterojunction nanomaterials to effectively boost the photogenerated electron-hole transfer in space, reduce recombination, and improve photocatalytic activity.…”

“…[11][12][13] Introducing defect engineering into heterostructure nanomaterials is an effective method to simultaneously improve their visible light properties and photocatalytic efficiency. [14][15][16] It has been demonstrated that (i) an appropriate amount of defect structures in semiconductor catalyst can be used as electron traps to capture photogenerated electrons, which can promote the effective separation of photogenerated carriers in heterostructures and improve the photocatalytic efficiency; [4,17] (ii) defect structure also benefits the formation of intermediate level and modulation of composite energy levels, which can improve the absorption and excitation of visible light. For example, compared with traditional doping methods, the introduction of oxygen vacancies in TiO 2 , [18] ZnO [19] and Fe 3 O 4 [20] can improve the visible light response of these catalysts and maintain the inherent crystal structure of the catalysts.…”

“…Photocatalytic water splitting based on semiconductor materials is an effective technology to convert solar energy into renewable hydrogen [1,2] . ZnS and ZnO are typical II–VI wide bandgap semiconductors, which enables them to effectively generate photocarriers and exhibit photocatalytic activity under UV‐light excitation [3–5] . However, the disadvantages of these materials, such as low solar efficiency and easy recombination of photogenerated carriers, greatly inhibit their application in photocatalysis [6,7] .…”

Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B Dye and Hydrogen Evolution by Hydrothermally Synthesized NaBH4—Spiked ZnS Nanostructures

“…ZnS has attracted much attention as a potential and effective photocatalyst for applications in organic pollutant degradation ( Dong et al, 2013 ; Ma et al, 2016 ; Ye et al, 2018 ) and in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via water splitting ( Puentes-Prado et al, 2020 ; Samaniego-Benitez et al, 2021 ; Xiong et al, 2021 ). Zinc sulphide is polymorphous with a cubic zinc blende (sphalerite) structure that is more stable at low temperature and a hexagonal wurtzite structure which commonly forms at high temperatures.…”