Engineering the Morphology and Configuration of Ternary Heterostructures for Improving Their Photocatalytic Activity

Heteronanomaterials composed of suitable semiconductors enable the direct conversion from solar power into clean and renewable energy. Ternary heterostructures with appropriate configuration and morphology possess rich and varied properties, especially for improving the photocatalytic activity and stability synchronously. However, suitable ternary heterostructure prototypes and facile while effective strategy for modulating their morphology and configuration are still scarce. Herein, various ternary ZnS-CdS-Zn_1-xCd_xS heterostructures with tunable morphology (0 to 2 D) and semiconductor configurations (randomly distributed, interface mediated, and quantum dots sensitized core@shell heterostructures) were facilely synthesized via one-pot hydrothermal method resulting from the different molecular structures of the amine solvents. Semiconductor morphology, especially configuration of the ternary heterostructure, shows dramatic effect on their photocatalytic activity. The CdS sensitized porous Zn_1-xCd_xS@ZnS core@shell takes full advantage of ZnS, Zn_1-xCd_xS and CdS and shows the maximal photocatalytic H₂-production rate of 100.2 mmol/h/g and excellent stability over 30 h. This study provides some guidelines for the design and synthesis of high-performance ternary heterostructure via modulation of semiconductor configuration and morphology using one-pot method.