Author(s): Zhu, DX (Zhu, Dongxu); Ye, HH (Ye, Haihang); Liu, ZM (Liu, Zheming); Liu, J (Liu, Jun); Fu, H (Fu, Hao); Huang, YB (Huang, Yanbin); Teng, F (Teng, Feng); Wang, ZJ (Wang, Zhijie); Tang, AW (Tang, Aiwei)
Source: NANOSCALE Volume: 12 Issue: 10 Pages: 6111-6120 DOI: 10.1039/c9nr10004k Published: MAR 14 2020
Abstract: Multinary copper-based chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) as light-driven photocatalysts have attracted extensive research interest due to their great potential for generating sustainable energy without causing environmental concerns. However, systematic studies on the growth mechanism and related photocatalytic activities involving different valent metal ions (either M2+ or N3+) as foreign cations and monoclinic Cu1.94S NCs as the 'parent lattice' have rarely been carried out. In this work, we report an effective seed-mediated method for the synthesis of heterostructured Cu1.94S-MS NCs (M = Zn, Cd and Mn) and alloyed CuNS2 NCs (N = In and Ga). A typical cation exchange process took place prior to the growth of heterostructured NCs, while further inter-cation diffusion occurred only for the alloyed NCs. When compared with Cu1.94S NCs, all the heterostructured Cu1.94S-MS NCs and CuGaS2 NCs showed enhanced photocatalytic activities toward hydrogen production by water splitting, owing to their tailored optical band gaps and energy level alignments. Although optically favored, CuInS2 ANCs were not comparable to others due to their low conduction band minimum for the reduction of H2O to H-2.
Accession Number: WOS:000520487300036
PubMed ID: 32129398
Author Identifiers:
AuthorWeb of Science ResearcherIDORCID Number
Liu, Jun 0000-0002-8594-1592
ISSN: 2040-3364
eISSN: 2040-3372
Full Text: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/NR/C9NR10004K