0D/2D heterojunction photocatalysts for improved full-spectrum-light-driven hydrogen evolution

Enhancing the full-spectrum light-driven hydrogen evolution of water splitting continues to be a pivotal challenge in the pursuit of advanced photocatalysts. In this study, the instability of MXene under light illumination has been effectively countered by affixing ultra-minor nanoparticles ZnO quantum dots (QDs) onto the surface of the two-dimensional (2D) MXene substrate. This process ensures the high electronic conductivity of MXene, thereby enhancing its photocatalytic stability and maintaining hydrogen production efficiency. The loading of a small amount of ZnO QDs enables MXene to realize a 10-fold improvement under full-spectrum excitation. Combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the results confirm that such excellent photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the increase of reactive active sites for hydrogen-extraction reaction (HER) on the surface of MXene, the fast carrier migration at the interface of heterostructure, and the improvement of the electron-hole pairs separation, thus resulting in the efficient full-spectrum solar catalytic activity and kinetic processes.