A facile hydrothermal approach for the deposition of CaIn2S4 hierarchical nanosheet films for photocatalytic application.

In this paper, CaIn 2 S 4 films with vertically aligned and interconnected hierarchical nanosheets were directly fabricated on tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) substrate via a facile hydrothermal process with no additional directing agent. The crystal structure, morphology and optical properties of the obtained CaIn 2 S 4 films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and UV–vis spectra. The results revealed the successful synthesis of uniform CaIn 2 S 4 hierarchical nanosheet films on ITO substrate with a whole thickness of about 3 μm and an average nanosheet thickness of about 20 nm, with the band gap of 2.17 eV. A possible mechanism for the formation of CaIn 2 S 4 films in hydrothermal process has been proposed. The CaIn 2 S 4 hierarchical nanosheet films exhibited a photocurrent density of approximate 0.2 mA cm−2 at 0.82 V (vs. NHE) in a neutral solution. In addition, the CaIn 2 S 4 films also exhibited superior photocatalytic activity for methyl orange and 1-naphthol. This study provided a green and facile method for the synthesis of high-quality CaIn 2 S 4 films applied in photocatalytic water splitting and photodegradation of organic pollutant. • Hierarchical nanosheet CaIn 2 S 4 films were fabricated by a hydrothermal process. • The CaIn 2 S 4 films exhibited good PEC performance in a neutral solution. • The CaIn 2 S 4 films demonstrated good MO and 1-naphthol degradation activity. • The structural and morphological properties of CaIn 2 S 4 films were characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]