Hollow MoS2@ZnIn2S4 nanoboxes for improving photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Semiconductor materials have become the primary photocatalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production. However, the design and synthesis of effective photocatalytic materials with excellent electron/hole separation efficiency, fast charge transfer, and low carrier recombination rate still face great challenge. Herein, hollow p-n heterojunction MoS2@ZnIn2S4 nanoboxes are synthesized for the first time by growing n-type ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) two-dimensional nanosheets on the surface of p-type hollow MoS2 nanoboxes (MSNBs), which exhibits obvious photocatalytic activity. Among them, 5% MSNBs@ZIS photocatalyst shows the highest hydrogen production efficiency of 22.25 mmol h-1 g-1, which is 7.3 times that of pure ZIS. The high photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency of 5% MSNBs@ZIS can be attributed to the formation of hollow structure and p-n heterojunction, which can provide a large number of catalytic active sites, large surface area, and can effectively promote the separation of photogenerated carriers, respectively.