Super-Photothermal Effect-Mediated Fast Reaction Kinetic in S-Scheme Organic/Inorganic Heterojunction Hollow Spheres Toward Optimized Photocatalytic Performance

Using full solar spectrum for energy conversion and environmental remediation is a major challenge, and solar-driven photothermal chemistry is a promising route to achieve this goal. Herein, this work reports a photothermal nano-constrained reactor based on hollow structured g-C₃N₄@ZnIn₂S₄ core–shell S-scheme heterojunction, where the synergistic effect of super-photothermal effect and S-scheme heterostructure significantly improve the photocatalytic performance of g-C₃N₄. The formation mechanism of g-C₃N₄@ZnIn₂S₄ is predicted in advance by theoretical calculations and advanced techniques, and the super-photothermal effect of g-C₃N₄@ZnIn₂S₄ and its contribution to the near-field chemical reaction is confirmed by numerical simulations and infrared thermography. Consequently, the photocatalytic degradation rate of g-C₃N₄@ZnIn₂S₄ for tetracycline hydrochloride is 99.3%, and the photocatalytic hydrogen production is up to 4075.65 µmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, which are 6.94 and 30.87 times those of pure g-C₃N₄, respectively. The combination of S-scheme heterojunction and thermal synergism provides a promising insight for the design of an efficient photocatalytic reaction platform.