Facet Engineering-Induced Construction of NiP/ZnInS Heterostructures for Boosted Photocatalytic CO Reduction.

Facet engineering was realized to enhance the CO photoreduction performance of the NiP/ZnInS heterostructure, in which the commonly exposed (1 0 2) face of ZnInS was converted to the (1 0 1) face due to the unique properties of the phosphide. The variation in the crystal plane strengthened the intense interfacial contact between NiP and ZnInS, resulting in the promotion of utilization and absorption efficiency for incident light and boosting the surface reaction rate. Combined with the significant metallicity of NiP, inhibited recombination and strengthened transfer efficiency were achieved, leading to an obvious enhancement of photoreduction activity over NiP/ZnInS compared to pure samples. In particular, the optimal NZ7 composite (the mass ratio of NiP to ZnInS) reached 68.31 μmol h g of CH, 10.65 μmol h g of CHOH, and 11.15 μmol h g of HCOOH. The mechanism of the CO photoreduction process was elucidated using ESR and in situ DRIFTS techniques.