ZnIn2S4-based photocatalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution via water splitting

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) via water splitting can effectively solve the current energy crisis and environmental pollution issues, in which the key factor is the development of advanced semiconductor photocatalysts. Zinc indium sulfide (ZnIn2S4) has attracted extensive research interest in PHE application due to its excellent semiconductor properties, like nontoxicity, suitable band gap, and high stability. Promising hydrogen production rate in PHE have been achieved on the ZnIn2S4-based photocatalysts, in this review, basic semiconductor properties, mainly including crystal and band structures of ZnIn2S4 are briefly introduced, and afterwards, the performance regulation of ZnIn2S4 with morphology modulation, structure design, doping method, and vacancy engineering are then discussed. Subsequently, the approaches for cocatalysts loading and heterojunction construction to fabricate advanced ZnIn2S4-based photocatalysts, are reviewed in detail. Finally, some issues of ZnIn2S4-based photocatalysts need to be further solved are discussed, and prospects for developing advanced photocatalysts are provided.