ZnxCd1-xS based materials for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, pollutants degradation and carbon dioxide reduction.

• Zn x Cd 1-x S based materials are promising photocatalysts for photocatalysis. • Newly developed fabrication strategies of Zn x Cd 1-x S based materials are introduced. • Three main routes to enhance the photocatlytic activity of Zn x Cd 1-x S are summarized. Over the past decades, designing efficient photocatalysts represents a remarkable route to deal with energy crisis, environmental pollution issues and global warming problems. Zinc cadmium sulfide (Zn x Cd 1-x S) based photocatalysts have been explored extensively due to their continuously tunable band gap structure and outstanding absorption ability for visible light, and substantial satisfying contributions have been made. This work first summarizes recent progress on the synthesis of Zn x Cd 1-x S based materials. They also have various applications in photocatalytic area, including photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, pollutants degradation and carbon dioxide reduction. Especially, the mechanism of different pathways to improve the photocatalytic performance of Zn x Cd 1-x S based photocatalysts is discussed in detail, which has never been reported in any previous reviews up to now. Moreover, the current challenges and development ideas of Zn x Cd 1-x S based materials are proposed. It is expected that our review would be helpful for the application of Zn x Cd 1-x S based photocatalysts in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]