Embedding indium nitride at the interface of indium-oxide/indium-zinc-sulfide heterostructure with enhanced interfacial charge transfer for high photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Enhancing the interfacial charge carriers transfer efficiency is important for designing photocatalysts with excellent hydrogen evolution performance. In this work, we have successfully constructed a InO@InN/ZnInS ternary heterostructure by embedding InN at the interface of thin-layered ZnInS and tubular InO derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) nanorods for the first time. The InN can not only adjust the energy band structure of InO, but also boost the photogenerated charge carriers transfer at the interface of InO and ZnInS. The optimum photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of InO@InN/ZnInS composite reaches 275 µmol/h (50 mg of catalyst) under simulated sunlight irradiation, which is obviously higher than pure InO (12.5 times), ZnInS (2.5 times) and binary InO/ZnInS (1.8 times) photocatalysts. This work can offer a meaningful strategy to promote the interfacial charge separation in the heterostructure for excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity.