Synthesis of Mn-doped hollow octahedron ZnIn2S4 to enhance photocatalytic hydrogen production performance utilizing metal–organic framework as template

Designing semiconductor photocatalysts with unique structures can improve the transfer efficiency of solar energy to hydrogen (H 2 ). In this study, a dual modification method of element doping and morphological control was used. The Mn-doped hollow octahedron ZnIn 2 S 4 (ZHO-Mn) was synthesized by a simple one-pot solvothermal method using the octahedral Mn-based metal–organic framework (Mn-MOF) as a template. Experiments and theoretical calculations show that the ZHO-Mn has additional active sites, strong light absorption ability and good photoelectric performance. The H 2 production performance of optimized ZHO-Mn10 was the best (11.9 mmol  h −1 g −1 ), which was 7.4 times that of monomer ZnIn 2 S 4 (1.6 mmol  h −1 g −1 ). This study provides a new one-step method for the dual control of doping and morphology of ZnIn 2 S 4 photocatalyst