All-solid-state Z-scheme Pt/ZnS-ZnO heterostructure sheets for photocatalytic simultaneous evolution of H2 and O2.

• The simultaneous evolution of H 2 and O 2 is obtained by Pt/ZnS-ZnO. • All-solid-state Z-scheme is successfully introduced into the Pt/ZnS-ZnO. • The photocatalytic reaction mechanism of the Pt/ZnS-ZnO is widely explored. The simultaneous production of the hydrogen and oxygen for photocatalytic water splitting still remains a critical challenge because O 2 release from semiconductor catalysts is an extremely difficult. Herein, we design and synthesize a novel ZnS-ZnO heterostructure sheets by combining solid-state Z-scheme for photocatalytic O 2 and H 2 evolution. Electron spin resonance result confirms that a solid-state Z-scheme is successfully introduced into the ZnS-ZnO heterostructure. Thanks to the rapid separation and migration of photoinduced electron/hole according to the Z-scheme mechanism, ZnS-ZnO heterostructure exhibits efficient H 2 evolution without using any sacrificial agent, far beyond the comparative values reported by currently ZnS/ZnO-based photocatalysts. Especially, the as-synthesized photocatalyst presents the ability of O 2 evolution for pure water splitting using Pt as cocatalyst, which is too difficult to be realized for previously reported ZnO/ZnS-based photocatalysts. Therefore, this work presents a new idea to design other semiconductor photocatalysts for simultaneous H 2 and O 2 evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]