Interfacial elaborating In₂O₃-decorated ZnO/reduced graphene oxide/ZnS heterostructure with robust internal electric...

Solar-driven hydrogen evolution over ZnO-ZnS heterostructures is considered as a promising strategy for sustainable-energy issues. However, the industrialization of this strategy is still constrained by suppressed carrier migration, rapid charge recombination, and the inevitable utilization of noble-metal particles. Herein, we envision a novel strategy of successfully introducing In₂O₃ into the ZnO-ZnS heterostructure. Benefiting from the optimized internal electric field and the charge carrier migration mode based on the direct Z-scheme, the interfacial elaborating In₂O₃-decorated ZnO/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/ZnS heterostructure manifests smooth charge migration, suppressed electron-hole pair recombination, and increased surface active sites. More importantly, the in situ introduction of In₂O₃ optimizes the construction of the internal electric field, favoring directional light-triggered carrier migration. As a result, the light-induced electrons generated from the heterostructure can be efficiently employed for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Hence, this work would shed light on the in situ fabrication of noble-metal-free photocatalysts for solar-driven water splitting.