Internal electric field engineering of bifunctional 2D/2D heterojunction photocatalyst for cooperative H2 production and alcohol conversion

Cooperative integrating of photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) production and alcohol conversion is a prospective strategy for producing value-added fuels and chemicals to address the energy-related environmental issues. Herein, a bifunctional two-dimensional (2D)/2D ZnIn2S4/CeO2 photocatalyst with a step-scheme heterojunction is successfully synthesized for simultaneous utilization of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, efficiently realizing the H2 production coupled with furfuryl alcohol oxidative conversion in one photoredox reaction system. The optimized ZnIn2S4/CeO2 photocatalyst produces 1.34 mmol g−1 h−1 of H2 and 1.24 mmol g−1 h−1 of furfural, which is higher than pure CeO2 and ZnIn2S4. The characterization results combined with density functional theory calculations revealed that the synergistic effect of 2D/2D heterointerfaces and internal electric field is importance for providing rich active sites and improving interfacial charge separation/transfer efficiency, therefore remarkably enhancing the photocatalytic redox performance. This study offers a paradigm for the future design of bifunctional photocatalysts for simultaneous H2 production and alcohol conversion.