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• Flower-like ZnIn 2 S 4 coupled with black phosphorus (BP) as efficient photocatalyst. • BP and photo-deposited Pt played a synergistic role in enhancing photocatalytic H 2 evolution. • 0.5%Pt/0.5%BP/ZnIn 2 S 4 showed the best H 2 production efficiency at 1278 μmol/g/h. • Superior recycling stability of more than 4 cycles for solar hydrogen evolution. To make persistent efforts at enhancing hydrogen evolution driven by solar energy, this work, for the first time, had introduced flower-like ZnIn 2 S 4 coupled with black phosphorus (BP) as efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution with photo-deposited Pt assisted under visible light irradiation. The hydrogen evolution efficiency of BP, ZnIn 2 S 4 , 0.5%BP/ZnIn 2 S 4 , 0.5%Pt/BP, 0.5%Pt/ZnIn 2 S 4 and 0.5%Pt/0.5%BP/ZnIn 2 S 4 photocatalysts were successively conducted and results showed that both BP and Pt played an important role in enhancing the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate. Therefore, the ternary 0.5%Pt/0.5%BP/ZnIn 2 S 4 composite exhibited the strongest hydrogen production efficiency at 1278 μmol/g/h, about 10 times higher than that of pristine ZnIn 2 S 4 (131 μmol/g/h) and represented a highly stable characteristic after suffering four recycles. The promoting hydrogen evolution of ternary photocatalyst could be ascribed to the unique bandgap and larger two-dimensional plane structure of BP, which provided abundant landing sites for the anchor of flower-like ZnIn 2 S 4 , thus leading to a well-inhibited recombination and efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and hole pairs between ZnIn 2 S 4 and BP. The remarkable photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance and prominent stability all indicated that 0.5%Pt/0.5%BP/ZnIn 2 S 4 was a promising photocatalyst candidate for solar hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • NiS/rGO/Cd 0.3 Zn 0.7 S photocatalysts prepared by facile hydrothermal and photochemical methods. • NiS are uniformly distributed on C 0.3 Z 0.7 S nanorods. • The NiS/rGO/C 0.3 Z 0.7 S exhibits excellent photocatalytic H 2 evolution activity of 1058 μmol h−1. • A possible mechanism was proposed based on the synergistic effect of rGO and NiS. Effectively improving the separation efficiency of photoinduced carriers is of crucial importance for the design of photocatalysts with excellent hydrogen evolution activity. Herein, by combining CdZnS nanorods with rGO and further depositing NiS as cocatalysts, the separation and transfer of photoinduced carriers for CdZnS is significantly improved. Without using any noble metals as cocatalysts, the optimal NiS/0.5%rGO/C 0.3 Z 0.7 S exhibits an outstanding H 2 evolution activity of 1058 μmol h−1 under visible light illumination, which is evidently better than that of pure CdZnS nanorods and most CdZnS-based photocatalysts reported previously. Our study indicates that the introduction of rGO can effectively assist the transfer of photoinduced electrons and evenly distributed NiS on the surface, as the active center for H 2 evolution reaction, can easily capture photoinduced electrons to participate in photocatalytic process. Thus, the synergistic effect of rGO and NiS is considered to be the main cause for the improved photocatalytic performance. This work could offer a facile and low-cost strategy for the construction of composite photocatalysts with high-efficiency hydrogen generation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]