Single crystalline quaternary sulfide nanobelts for efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion

Liang Wu; Qian Wang; Tao-Tao Zhuang; Yi Li; Guozhen Zhang; Guo-Qiang Liu; Feng-Jia Fan; Lei Shi; Shu-Hong Yu

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18679-z

Single crystalline quaternary sulfide nanobelts for efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion

Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 15;11(1):5194. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18679-z.

Authors

Liang Wu^{1

2}, Qian Wang³, Tao-Tao Zhuang^{1

2}, Yi Li^{1

2}, Guozhen Zhang³, Guo-Qiang Liu^{1

2}, Feng-Jia Fan⁴, Lei Shi¹, Shu-Hong Yu^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
² Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomimetic Materials & Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
³ Department of Chemical Physics, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance and Department of Modern Physics, Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁵ Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China. shyu@ustc.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomimetic Materials & Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China. shyu@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

Although solar-driven water splitting on semiconductor photocatalysts is an attractive route for hydrogen generation, there is a lack of excellent photocatalysts with high visible light activity. Due to their tunable bandgaps suitable for superior visible-light absorption, copper-based quaternary sulfides have been the important candidates. Here, we first assessed the preferred facet of wurtzite Cu-Zn-In-S for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction using the relevant Gibbs free energies determined by first principle calculation. We then developed a colloidal method to synthesize single crystalline wurtzite Cu-Zn-In-S nanobelts (NBs) exposing (0001) facet with the lowest reaction Gibbs energy, as well as Cu-Zn-Ga-S NBs exposing (0001) facet. The obtained single crystalline Cu-Zn-In-S and Cu-Zn-Ga-S NBs exhibit superior hydrogen production activities under visible-light irradiation, which is composition-dependent. Our protocol represents an alternative surface engineering approach to realize efficient solar-to-chemical conversion of single crystalline copper-based multinary chalcogenides.

Abstract

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