Hollow Dodecahedral Structure of InO-InS Heterojunction Encapsulated by N-Doped C as an Excellent Visible-Light-Active Photocatalyst for Organic Transformation.

The low utilization efficiency in the visible region of the sunlight spectrum and the rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers are two crucial drawbacks that suppress the practical usage of metal oxide semiconductors as photocatalysts. In this article, we report a rational design of InO-InS heterojunctions encapsulated by N-doped carbon with a hollow dodecahedral structure (InO-InS/N-C HDS), which can effectively handle the two drawbacks of metal oxide semiconductors and behave active for organic transformation under the irradiation of visible light even with long wavelengths. As exemplified by the selective oxidative coupling reaction of amine to imine, the obtained InO-InS/N-C HDS as the photocatalyst has exhibited excellent activity and stability. Experimental and density functional theory studies have verified that the excellent performance of InO-InS/N-C HDS can be attributed to the synergistic effect of InO-InS heterojunctions, the coating of N-doped carbon, and the hollow porous structure with nanosheets as subunits.