Hierarchical SbS/ZnInS core-shell heterostructure for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production and pollutant degradation.

In this work, a novel hierarchical 1D/2D core/shell SbS-ZnInS (SB-ZIS) heterostructure with highly efficient photocatalytic activities for both hydrogen production from water and organic pollutant degradation was designed and fabricated via a simple one-step hydrothermal method. The as-prepared SB-ZIS heterostructure, where ZnInS nanosheets uniformly grew onto SbS nanorod to form a tight and large intimate contacted interface, was conducive to improve the absorption capacity of light, increase the surface area, shorten the distance of electronic transmission channels and accelerate the separation and migration of photogenerated carriers. As a result, the presented SB-ZIS composites demonstrated significantly enhanced photocatalytic performances for H generation and Tetracycline Hydrochloride (TCH) photodegradation. The photocatalytic H production rate of optimal SB-ZIS-2 sample (1685.14 μmol·g·h) was about 12.24 times as large as that of pure ZnInS (137.63 μmol·g·h). The apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) at 420 nm was up to 3.8%. In addition, the highest rate constant for TCH removal (0.514 h) was 20.3 and 2.89 times larger than those of pure SbS and ZnlnS, respectively. The possible reaction routes of TCH and the photocatalytic reaction mechanism of SB-ZIS sample were also discussed in detail. This work will provide some useful information for the development of dual-functional SbS-based type I core-shell heterostructure with an efficient photocatalytic activity for solving environmental pollution and producing clean hydrogen energy.