Boosting photothermal-assisted photocatalytic water/seawater splitting into hydrogen based on greenhouse-induced photothermal effect

Yuxing Shi; Zhouze Chen; Pengyu Hao; Pengnian Shan; Jialin Lu; Feng Guo; Weilong Shi

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.170

Boosting photothermal-assisted photocatalytic water/seawater splitting into hydrogen based on greenhouse-induced photothermal effect

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Jan;653(Pt B):1339-1347. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.170. Epub 2023 Sep 29.

Authors

Yuxing Shi¹, Zhouze Chen², Pengyu Hao¹, Pengnian Shan¹, Jialin Lu¹, Feng Guo³, Weilong Shi⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212003, PR China.
² School of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212003, PR China.
³ School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212003, PR China. Electronic address: gfeng0105@126.com.
⁴ School of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212003, PR China. Electronic address: shiwl@just.edu.cn.

PMID: 37801844
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.170

Abstract

Photothermal-assisted photocatalytic hydrogen production is a very promising way to maximize solar energy utilization to obtain clean energy. Herein, we designed a composite photocatalyst with coating core-shell Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles on the surface of ZnIn₂S₄ micro-flowers for high-efficient photothermal-assisted photocatalytic water/seawater splitting. Experimental results reveal that in the core-shell structure of Fe₃O₄@SiO₂, the addition of the SiO₂ shell in Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ not only separates the photothermal and photochemical components, avoiding competition between them, but also further increases the temperature of the core in a manner similar to the greenhouse effect, which was used as a hot core to provide heat to the ZnIn₂S₄ photocatalyst to increase the surface reaction temperature and enhance the collision chances of photo-generated carriers into causing severe recombination of carriers, thus promoting the hydrogen generation. Significantly, the optimal photocatalytic water/seawater splitting into hydrogen production rates over Fe₃O₄@SiO₂/ZnIn₂S₄ are up to 1258.5 and 1108.5 μmol g^-1 h^-1, which are 11.9 and 14.7 times higher than that of pristine ZnIn₂S₄, respectively. This study provides an idea for the design of highly efficient photothermal-assisted photocatalysts.

Keywords: Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) nanoparticles; Greenhouse effect; Hydrogen; Photothermal-assisted; Seawater splitting; Solar energy; ZnIn(2)S(4).