Construction of Z-scheme CdIn₂S₄/ZnSnO₃ heterostructure for photocatalytic hydrogen production performance

The double shell hollow cube structural ZnSnO3(ZSO) was prepared by high-temperature calcination with ZnSn(OH)(6) as a precursor. Then, the CdIn2S4 (CIS) nanocrystalline was wrapped on the surface of ZSO by a hydrothermal method. Thus CdIn2S4/ZnSnO3 (CIS/ZSO) heterostructures were successfully prepared. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) result indicated that the as-prepared 12% CIS/ZSO heterostructure obtained with the molar ratio of CIS to ZSO of 12% exhibited excellent photocatalytic H-2-production activity with the hydrogen yield of 1 676.48 mu mol center dot g(-1) for 3 h, about 12 times and 8 times of original ZSO and CIS, respectively. The enhanced activity of the ZSO photocatalytic HER was attributed to the successful construction of the CIS/ZSO heterostructure. The formation of the CIS/ZSO heterostructural interface significantly improved the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole pairs and reduced their recombination rate. Furthermore, the possible reaction mechanism was proposed by analyzing the charge transfer pathway.