N-doped C-coated MoO 2 /ZnIn 2 S 4 heterojunction for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Designing a heterojunction photocatalyst to improve the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes is of great significance to improve the hydrogen production efficiency. In this work, we report a rational design to grow ZnIn 2 S 4 on Mo-MOF-derived N-doped C-coated MoO 2 (MOZIS), and it has excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production with triethanolamine (TEOA) as sacrificial agent. N-doped C improves the electron transport efficiency between MoO 2 and ZnIn 2 S 4 . The systematic study shows that MOZIS has good properties to promote the effective separation and transfer of photocatalytic charges, which is attributed to the tight contact interface and good energy band structure between MoO 2 and ZnIn 2 S 4 . The optimized nanocomposites have a high hydrogen production efficiency of 10.89 mmol·g −1 (4 h) under visible light. MOF-derived N-doped C-coated MoO 2 is an effective strategy to improve the photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency of ZnIn 2 S 4 . Graphical abstract