Light-induced CoOX surface reconstruction in hollow heterostructure for durable photocatalytic seawater splitting

Photocorrosion triggered by the unconsumed photogenerated holes severely deteriorates the photocatalytic efficiency and stability of semiconductor photocatalysts, especially in seawater with complex ions. Here, we report a hierarchical hollow ZnIn2S4 heterostructure integrating an inner CoOx nanocage and atomically dispersed Pt anchoring at surface S vacancies for hydrogen evolution from natural seawater (23.88 mmol g−1 h−1) and pure water (48.99 mmol g−1 h−1) under visible light. The dynamic Co2+/Co3+ self-reconstruction of the inner CoOx cage effectively consumes photogenerated holes, while the outer Pt1 single atoms localized at S vacancies serve as electron sinks to facilitate electron extraction and…

• DO
  Department of Science and Technology of Shandong Province

  Award: 2021KJ022
• QN
  Qufu Normal University
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 62104131, 52173277
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province

  Award: ZR2020QF077
• TS
  Taishan Scholar Foundation of Shandong Province

  Award: 2021KJ022