University of Science and Technology of China has developed a new type of high-efficiency sulfide photocatalyst

Recently, the team of Academician Yu Shuhong of the University of Science and Technology of China has developed a colloidal chemical synthesis method and successfully prepared a new type of quaternary sulfide single crystal nanobelt photocatalyst, which exhibits excellent photocatalytic hydrogen production performance.
Relevant results were published in "Nature-Communications" a few days ago, providing a new way for the design and development of new high-efficiency photocatalysts.
Designing new semiconductor nanomaterials to capture solar energy and achieve efficient photochemical conversion is one of the ideal ways to solve the global energy and environmental crisis.
Copper-based polysulfide has good visible light absorption properties and is an important photocatalyst material.
However, low conductivity and high photo-generated carrier recombination rate hinder its application in the field of photocatalysis, and the preparation of high-efficiency copper-based quaternary sulfide photocatalysts faces important challenges.
In the study, Shuhong Yu’s team found that the morphology and surface crystal planes of nanocrystals can effectively enhance and optimize the photocatalytic performance of semiconductor materials, and the copper-based polysulfide with a single crystal structure is more conducive to charge separation and thereby enhance photocatalytic performance.
They designed a simple colloidal chemical synthesis method and successfully prepared single crystal copper-based polysulfide nanobelts that only exposed a particular crystal face.
The nanobelt photocatalyst has excellent performance and good stability.
This study uses surfactants to assist in the successful preparation of nanobelts that expose specific crystal faces, and proposes a new strategy for the design of polysulfide nanophotocatalysts, which is expected to be extended to the synthesis of other polybasic chalcogenide nanocrystals and to improve the synthesis method.
The realization of fine adjustment of its morphology and surface is expected to have unique application value in photodetection and photocatalysis.