Polyethylene glycol assisted solvothermal synthesis of ZnIn 2 S 4 with zinc vacancy and enhanced internal electric field for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction

In this work, polyethylene glycol is adopted as the solvent for the synthesis of ZnIn 2 S4 photocatalyst by the solvothermal method. Compared with the pristine ZnIn 2 S 4 synthesized in H 2 O solvent, those ones prepared in the polyethylene glycol solvent possess several unique features that are beneficial for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction, such as the increased Zinc vacancy level, the enlarged band gap, and the enhanced built-in internal electric field. These features allow for better charge separation efficiency, thereby improving the photocatalytic activity. The optimized ZnIn 2 S 4 can achieve a CO yield rate of 20.14 mu mol/g/h at the gas -solid interface, which is 8.36 times that of the pristine ZnIn 2 S 4 .