Construction of Hierarchical Hollow Co9S8/ZnIn2S4 Tubular Heterostructures for Highly Efficient Solar Energy Conversion and Environmental Remediation

Visible-light-responsive hierarchical Co9 S8 /ZnIn2 S4 tubular heterostructures are fabricated by growing 2D ZnIn2 S4 nanosheets on 1D hollow Co9 S8 nanotubes. This design combines two photoresponsive sulfide semiconductors in a stable heterojunction with a hierarchical hollow tubular structure, improving visible-light absorption, yielding a large surface area, exposing sufficient catalytically active sites, and promoting the separation and migration of photogenerated charges. The hierarchical nanotubes exhibit excellent photocatalytic H2 evolution and Cr(VI) reduction efficiency. Under visible-light illumination, the optimized Co9 S8 /ZnIn2 S4 heterostructure provides a remarkable H2 generation rate of 9039 mumol h(-1) g(-1) without the use of any co-catalysts and Cr(VI) is completely reduced in 45 min. The Co9 S8 /ZnIn2 S4 heterostructure is stable after multiple photocatalytic cycles.