Super‐Photothermal Effect‐Mediated Fast Reaction Kinetic in S‐Scheme Organic/Inorganic Heterojunction Hollow Spheres Toward Optimized Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract

AbstractUsing full solar spectrum for energy conversion and environmental remediation is a major challenge, and solar‐driven photothermal chemistry is a promising route to achieve this goal. Herein, this work reports a photothermal nano‐constrained reactor based on hollow structured g‐C3N4@ZnIn2S4 core–shell S‐scheme heterojunction, where the synergistic effect of super‐photothermal effect and S‐scheme heterostructure significantly improve the photocatalytic performance of g‐C3N4. The formation mechanism of g‐C3N4@ZnIn2S4 is predicted in advance by theoretical calculations and advanced techniques, and the super‐photothermal effect of g‐C3N4@ZnIn2S4 and its contribution to the near‐field chemical reaction is confirmed by numerical simulations and infrared thermography. Consequently, the photocatalytic degradation rate of g‐C3N4@ZnIn2S4 for tetracycline hydrochloride is 99.3%, and the photocatalytic hydrogen production is up to 4075.65 µmol h−1 g−1, which are 6.94 and 30.87 times those of pure g‐C3N4, respectively. The combination of S‐scheme heterojunction and thermal synergism provides a promising insight for the design of an efficient photocatalytic reaction platform.