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Because of its importance in enhancing charge separation and transfer, built-in electric field engineering has been acknowledged as an effective technique for improving photocatalytic performance. Herein, a stable p–n heterojunction of 2D/2D (2D: two-dimensional) Co3O4/ZnIn2S4 with a strong built-in electric field is precisely constructed. The Co3O4/ZnIn2S4 heterojunction exhibits a higher visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution rate than the individual components, which is primarily attributed to the synergy effect of improved light absorption, abundant active sites, short charge transport distance, and high separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. Furthermore, the photoelectrochemical studies and density functional theory (DFT) calculation results demonstrate that the enhanced interfacial charge separation and migration induced by the generated built-in electric field are the critical reasons for the boosted photocatalytic performance. This research might pave the way for the rational design and manufacturing of 2D/2D heterojunction photocatalysts with extremely efficient photocatalytic performance for solar energy conversion.

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 21 June 2022
Revised: 15 August 2022
Accepted: 24 September 2022
Published: 19 November 2022
Issue date: May 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2020YFC1808401), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22078213, 21938006, 51973148, and 21776190), and cutting-edge technology basic research project of Jiangsu (No. BK20202012) and the project supported by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). G. P. Z. is also grateful for support from the Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M702389) and Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (No. 2022ZB536).

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