Gallium Phosphide-Zinc Sulfide Solid Solutions for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Solid solution photocatalysts with well-tailored electronic structures are important candidates for high-performance photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Although a few kinds of solid solution photocatalysts have been developed for photocatalytic HER, no phosphorous sulfide solid solutions have been used in this field. Herein, the preparation of a series of visible-light-responsive gallium phosphide-zinc sulfide (GaP-ZnS) solid solutions is presented capable of driving photocatalytic HER for the first time. It is found that the electronic structures of the GaP-ZnS solid solutions can be well regulated by tuning the compositions of the GaP and ZnS components. The optimum GaP-ZnS solid solution exhibits 4.3 times higher photocatalytic HER activity than GaP under visible light irradiation, which is ascribed to the contribution of the different elements that modulate the electronic structures.