Fast charge transfer kinetics in Sv‐ZnIn ₂ S ₄ /Sb ₂ S ₃ S‐scheme heterojunction photocatalyst for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Abstract Constructing a S‐scheme heterojunction with tight interface contact and fast charge transfer is beneficial to improving the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. Herein, a unique one‐dimensional (1D)/two‐dimensional (2D) S‐scheme heterojunction containing 1D Sb 2 S 3 nanorods and 2D ZnIn 2 S 4 with affluent sulfur vacancies (denoted as Sv‐ZnIn 2 S 4 @Sb 2 S 3 ) was designed. The introduced sulfur vacancy can promote the effective adsorption of H + for the following interfacial hydrogen‐evolution reaction. Furthermore, the larger contact area and stronger electron interaction between Sb 2 S 3 and ZnIn 2 S 4 effectively inhibits the recombination of photo‐generated electron–hole pairs and abridges the migration distance of charges. As a result, the optimal Sv‐ZnIn 2 S 4 @Sb 2 S 3 sample achieves H 2 evolution activity of 2741.3 mol·h −1 ·g −1 , which is 8.6 times that of pristine ZnIn 2 S 4 and 3.0 times that of the Sv‐ZnIn 2 S 4 samples. Based on the experimental result, the photo‐reactivity S‐scheme mechanism of hydrogen evolution from water splitting with Sv‐ZnIn 2 S 4 @Sb 2 S 3 is proposed. This work provides an effective method for developing S‐scheme heterojunction composites of transition metal sulfide with high hydrogen evolution performance.