Indium selenide/silver phosphate hollow microsphere S-scheme heterojunctions for photocatalytic hydrogen production with simultaneous degradation of tetracycline

Lingwei Li; Hange Feng; Zibo Dong; Tiantian Yang; Shaolin Xue

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.06.067

Indium selenide/silver phosphate hollow microsphere S-scheme heterojunctions for photocatalytic hydrogen production with simultaneous degradation of tetracycline

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Nov:649:10-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.06.067. Epub 2023 Jun 14.

Authors

Lingwei Li¹, Hange Feng², Zibo Dong¹, Tiantian Yang¹, Shaolin Xue³

Affiliations

¹ College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
² College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; College of Information Science and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
³ College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China. Electronic address: slxue@dhu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37331106
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.06.067

Abstract

Designing heterojunction photocatalysts with strong interfacial interactions is an effective way to reduce the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. Here, silver phosphate (Ag₃PO₄) nanoparticles are coupled with hollow flower-like indium selenide (In₂Se₃) microspheres by a facile Ostwald ripening and in-situ growth method, resulting in the construction of In₂Se₃/Ag₃PO₄ hollow microsphere step-scheme (S-scheme) heterojunction with a large contact interface. The flower-like In₂Se₃ with hollow and porous structure provides a large specific surface area and numerous active sites for photocatalytic reactions to take place. The photocatalytic activity was tested by measuring the hydrogen evolution from antibiotic wastewater, and the H₂ evolution rate of In₂Se₃/Ag₃PO₄ reached 4206.4 µmol g^-1h^-1 under visible light, which is approximately 2.8 times greater than that of In₂Se₃. In addition, the amount of tetracycline (TC) degradation when it was used as a sacrificial agent is about 54.4% after 1 h. On the one hand, Se-P chemical bonds act as electron transfer channels in the S-scheme heterojunctions, which can facilitate the migration and separation of photogenerated charge carriers. On the other hand, the S-scheme heterojunctions can retain the useful holes and electrons with higher redox capacities, which is very favorable for the generation of more •OH radicals and the photocatalytic activity is greatly enhanced. This work provides an alternative design approach for photocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution in antibiotic wastewater.

Keywords: Hollow structure; In(2)Se(3)/Ag(3)PO(4) S-scheme heterojunction; Photocatalytic degradation tetracycline; Photocatalytic hydrogen production; Se-P bond.