In situ photo-assisted deposition and photocatalysis of ZnIn2S4/transition metal chalcogenides for enhanced degradation and hydrogen evolution under visible light.

The effective immobilization of a transition chalcogenide co-catalyst via an in situ aqueous photo-assisted deposition technique has shown great accessibility to complex ZnIn2S4 host hierarchical nanostructured materials with homogeneous distribution. The complementary photo-assisted deposition readily deposits finely-dispersed co-catalyst particles and simultaneously generates photocatalytic hydrogen. Another added advantage is that the photo-assisted deposition of the co-catalyst does not compromise the crystal structure or the integrity of the host photocatalyst, hence offering a better alternative to the doping technique. A systematic study of various transition metal chalcogenide co-catalysts and optimization of wt% MoS2, CuS and Ag2S loadings were demonstrated. Among them, the ZnIn2S4/MoS2 composite exhibits exceptional photocatalytic hydrogen production and stability as well as superior MO degradation under visible light irradiation. The present methodology is expected to be extendable to various transition metal oxides/chalcogenides since ionic derivatives exhibit high affinity to a variety of materials under photoirradiation.