Prof. Li Shengjie and Prof. Chen Yanyan's group at Hefei University of Technology reported "Insight into the Photocatalytic Mechanism in Nanopotential Well@Homojunction System: Carrier Dynamics and Interfacial Charge Transfer" in Science China Chemistry (first author: Liu Xiang; DOI: 10.1007/s11426-026-3671-8).
Conventional heterojunctions suffer from severe interfacial recombination and disordered carrier migration. The team proposed a "bidirectional potential-well trapping @ barrier-free homojunction transport" strategy.
TiO2 was intercalated into ZnIn2S4 nanosheets, forming bilateral nanopotential wells at the interface that efficiently capture photogenerated electrons from the planar region of the layered material. In-situ grown ZnIn2S4 quantum points build a ZIS/ZIS homojunction whose lattice-matched interface removes transport barriers, providing a fast channel for electrons localized in the wells.
The system achieved an H2 evolution rate of 65.97 mmol g-1 h-1 in pure water - 201 times that of pristine ZIS nanosheets - and retained 30.21 mmol g-1 h-1 in simulated seawater, with an apparent quantum yield of 33.07% at 365 nm.
Read the Chinese report: SCC: nanopotential well homojunction.
