CdS-based artificial leaf for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and simultaneous degradation of biological wastewater

Rational design of all-solid-state Z-scheme heterojunction with advanced structure is essential for boosting photocatalytic efficiency. Herein, we design and fabricate a novel Z-scheme photocatalyst with leaf architecture (named artificial leaf) via a simple dipping-calcination (DC) process followed by a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) strategy. The prepared artificial leaf, composing of CdS, InVO4, and BiVO4, holds advanced leaf-like structure and Z-scheme electron transfer pathway. As a result, this novel artificial leaf exhibits outstanding capability for the harvesting of visible light and superior efficiency for the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, as well as remarkably enhanced photocatalytic performance and stability for H2 evolution (with the rate of 5033 μm g-1∙h-1) and pollution degradation (46% pollution can be degraded within 3 h).