A thin clothe coated architecture of ZnIn2S4/H2Ta2O6 for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

Focused on energy and environment issues, in present investigation, an economical and eco-friendly photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution in water splitting reaction has been designed and fabricated. The characteristics by XRD, TEM, XPS and AFM confirmed that an octahedral H2Ta2O6 is uniformly capsuled by ZnIn2S4 thin clothes to form a package ZnIn2S4/H2Ta2O6 heterojunction. The assembled ZnIn2S4/H2Ta2O6 exhibits superior hydrogen generated performance with a value of 3217.31 mmol g(-1).h(-1) under simulated sunlight irradiation, without obvious deactivation in five consecutive cycles. The enhanced activity and reusability are mainly attributed to ultrathin clothe-like shell, the well matched band structure and a large tight contact interface in the package type construction, which can promote redox ability, extend light harvesting range and boost charge separation efficiency. The present study proposes a new design idea to assemble a highly efficient and durable photocatalyst for solar hydrogen generation by splitting water. (C) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.