Modulating the doping state of transition metal ions in ZnS for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Linping Bao; Xiaohui Ren; Chengyin Liu; Xin Liu; Chunhui Dai; Yong Yang; Mohamed Bououdina; Sajjad Ali; Chao Zeng

doi:10.1039/d3cc03436d

Modulating the doping state of transition metal ions in ZnS for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Chem Commun (Camb). 2023 Sep 19;59(75):11280-11283. doi: 10.1039/d3cc03436d.

Authors

Linping Bao¹, Xiaohui Ren², Chengyin Liu³, Xin Liu¹, Chunhui Dai⁴, Yong Yang⁵, Mohamed Bououdina⁶, Sajjad Ali⁷, Chao Zeng¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Lab of Fluorine and Silicon for Energy Materials and Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, PR China. czeng@jxnu.edu.cn.
² The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, School of Materials and Metallurgy, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, PR China.
³ School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, PR China.
⁴ Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Instrumentation, East China University of Technology, Nanchang 330013, PR China.
⁵ Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Sensors, Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Photoelectronics and Telecommunication, School of Physics, Communication and Electronics, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, 330022, PR China.
⁶ Department of Mathematics and Sciences, College of Humanities and Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Energy, Water, and Environment Lab, College of Humanities and Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia. sajjad@alum.imr.ac.cn.

PMID: 37665259
DOI: 10.1039/d3cc03436d

Abstract

Transition metal ions (M = Ag⁺, Cu²⁺, Co²⁺, and Cr³⁺) are surface or homogeneously doped into ZnS via facile cation-exchange reaction, and while Ag⁺ and Cu²⁺ doping does not induce sulphur vacancies (V_s) or zinc vacancies (V_Zn), Co²⁺ and Cr³⁺ doping induces V_s. The surface doped catalysts exhibit greatly higher activity than the ZnS and homogenous doped catalysts for H₂ evolution and CO₂ reduction. The important role of the doping state on affecting the photo-absorption, carrier separation efficiency, and photoreaction kinetics has been systemically investigated and proposed. This work sheds light on the future design and fabrication of high-performance photocatalysts by element doping.