Over-all Water Splitting over Core/Shell Zn3As2/ZnO Catalysts Driven by Visible-Light

The results indicate that the ZnO shell inhibits the photo-corrosion and enhances the stability of the catalyst. Under visible light irradiation, the hydrogen evolution amount reached 56.33 μmol·g−1 within 3 h, which is 1.75 times that of pure Zn3As2, and it operated for 9 h without decay.

Structural characterization confirms that the coherent Zn3As2/ZnO interface formed by in-situ oxidation suppresses defect recombination through lattice matching. The formed heterojunction significantly promotes the separation and migration of photogenerated carriers, thereby extending their lifetime. As a stable protective layer, ZnO not only reduces the hydrogen evolution overpotential and the charge transfer and mass transfer impedances but also effectively inhibits the photo-corrosion of Zn3As2.