Constructive defect engineering MoO3 and CdLa2S4 to form S-scheme heterojunction for synergistic and efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

This work provided innovative apertures with great exploratory value for engineering oxygen defects and designing S-scheme photocatalysts for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. In this study, the S-scheme heterostructure CdLa 2 S 4 /MoO 3-x (CLSMO) was synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly to solve the problem of electron hole recombination in hydrogen evolution half-reaction. The results showed that the hydrogen precipitation rate of the optimized CLSMO was 41.41 mmol g -1 h −1 , which was 12.70 times higher than that of monomeric CLS. The presence of oxygen vacancies (Ovs) increased the range of light absorption and reduces the surface dynamic barrier. More importantly, the experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that CdLa 2 S 4 and MoO 3-x strictly followed the S-scheme charge transfer path, accumulating photogenerated electrons in the CLS conduction band, and achieving efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. This study provided a new idea to solve the problem of photocatalyst activity using OVs and S-scheme heterojunctions.