Fabrication of the ternary dual S-scheme ZnO/ZnS/In2S3 heterojunction for enhancing pollutant photodegradation

The construction of heterojunction for photocatalysis has garnered much research interest. Herein, we report the successful fabrication of a ternary dual S-scheme ZnO/ZnS/In2S3 heterojunction with a higher photocatalytic capacity via a hydrothermal method. Specifically, the optimized ternary heterojunction ZSI0.35 sample achieves the 100 % photodegradation efficiency of RhB (10 mg/L, 50 mL) within 10 min, approximately 17 and 8 times higher than pure ZnO and ZnO/ZnS binary heterojunction, respectively. Further characterization results confirm the dual S-scheme heterojunction structure in the fabricated ZnO/ZnS/In2S3 ternary heterojunction, and the improvement of photocatalytic properties can be attributed to the enhanced Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, the improved redox capacity of the photocatalyst, and the quick charge transfer. Additionally, the possible photocatalytic mechanism is discussed according to the measurements. This work provides an efficient strategy of promising heterojunction photocatalysts for photocatalytic environmental remediation.