Photobreeding Heterojunction on Semiconductor Materials for Enhanced Photocatalysis

Abstract

Construction of heterojunctions to photocatalysts is one of the most promising approaches to improve charge separation efficiency; however, the established constructing processes usually require high-temperature conditions and/or the adding of highly concentrated or expensive exotic species, and the improvement of effective contact and charge exchange between heterojunction components remains a problem. This work proposes an unprecedented “photobreeding” method and realizes the direct growth of Zn nanowires and Mott–Schottky heterojunctions from ZnS or viologen-coated ZnS microspheres through a photochemical reaction at room temperature without external species, while demonstrating the hypothesis proposed 140 years ago on the formation of Zn in the photochromic process of ZnS. After photobreeding of the heterojunctions, the hydrogen production efficiency of the photocatalysts increases by 2 orders of magnitude. This inexpensive, facile and efficient synthetic method will find applications in H2 production, organic synthesis, CO2 reduction, nitrogen fixation, and so on.