Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over 0D/3D NiTiO3 nanoparticles/CdIn2S4 microspheres heterostructure photocatalyst

Constructing S-scheme heterojunction is regarded as an effective mode to motivate excellent photocatalytic performance for hydrogen generation. This paper prepares NiTiO3/CdIn2S4 S-scheme heterostructure photocatalyst by hydrothermal method successfully. In the experiments, 20 wt% NiTiO3/CdIn2S4 has the supreme photocatalytic activity with the H2 generation rate of 5168.6 μmol g−1 h−1 and the apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 5.14% at 420 nm, approximately 7.7 times of pure CdIn2S4. Through the phase characterization analyses, NiTiO3 and CdIn2S4 successfully compounded, with NiTiO3 nanoparticles wrapping around CdIn2S4 microspheres to form the irregular clumps. Further analyses of performance reveal the larger specific surface area, wider absorption region, faster charge transfer rate, outstanding photostability and recyclability for 20 wt% NiTiO3/CdIn2S4, all of which play the significant role in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity. Finally, a plausible S-scheme photocatalytic mechanism for NiTiO3/CdIn2S4 is proposed. This study provides a novel and effective S-scheme photocatalyst for hydrogen generation from water splitting.