Direct Z-scheme high-entropy metal phosphides/ZnIn2S4 heterojunction for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is a reliable way to mitigate the energy crisis. In this work, ZnIn2S4, which has great development prospects, is selected as the photocatalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. At the same time, in order to improve the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of ZnIn2S4, a novel high-entropy metal phosphide (HEMP) catalyst with abundant active sites was compounded with ZnIn2S4. The designed direct Z-scheme HEMP/ZnIn2S4, heterojunction demonstrated outstanding photocatalytic activity and superior stability for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The 10% HEMP-0/ZnIn2S4 sample exhibited the best photocatalytic performance with a hydrogen evolution rate of 4630.21 μmol h−1 g−1, which is 3.29 times higher than that of pure ZnIn2S4. The excellent photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the accelerated reaction kinetics, the accumulation of electrons and holes with strong reduction and oxidation abilities and the inhibition of photogenerated electron-hole pairs of the Z-scheme heterojunction. This work achieved the first application of high-entropy metal phosphides in the field of photocatalysis, not only offering a new strategy to optimize the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of ZnIn2S4 but also paving the way for the application of high-entropy materials in photocatalysis.