Synthesis Of Novel Cu₃SnS₄and Cu₂ZnSnS₄Materials And The Photocatalytic Ability Of Hydrogen Evolution From Water

Ternary and quaternary chalcogenides have attracted global attentionfor their potential application in the frontier of photocatalytic hydrogenevolution from water and absorption layers of thin-film solar cells.However, it’s urgent to develop more convenient reaction routes for thematerials under mild reaction conditions.Herein,3D-hierarchical Cu₃SnS₄flowerlike microspheres have beensuccessfully synthesized through a solvothermal process. And thereaction temperature and the dosage of sulfur source play significant roleson the growth of Cu₃SnS₄flowerlike microspheres. The formationprocess of the hierarchical microspheres is studied well and a possiblemechanism is also proposed. UV-visible absorption spectra show that theas-synthesized Cu₃SnS₄microspheres with a direct band gap of1.38eVhave stronger absorption from UV to near-IR region. Further studiesreveal that the obtained Cu₃SnS₄photocatalysts without any loadingsexhibit good photocatalytic activity, and the rate of H2evolution isdetermined to be1.1mmol h-1g-1under simulated solar irradiation. Moreover, Cu₂ZnSnS₄nanoparticles have been successfullysynthesized through a solvothermal as well as a hydrothermal process.With PVP being introduced into the reaction system to modify theformation of CZTS materials, nanoparticles with extremely small size andgood dispersibility were obtained. Further study showed that reactionparameters, such as the solvent and reducing agent used in the reaction,the dosage of sulfur source play a significant role in the formation ofCZTS nanoparticles.