Shining light on ZnIn₂S₄ photocatalysts: Promotional effects of surface and heterostructure engineering toward artificial photosynthesis

Abstract The gradual depletion of fossil fuel reserves that contribute to ~85% of global energy production and release of toxic effluents urges the transformation toward renewable fuels. Thus, the sustainable utilization of sunlight for water splitting and CO₂ reduction with heterogeneous photocatalysts has come to light. As a semiconductor photocatalyst, ZnIn₂S₄ has hit the limelight owing to its narrow bandgap and visible‐light‐responsive properties. However, the limitations of ZnIn₂S₄ include limited active sites, fast charge‐carrier recombination, and low photoconversion efficiency. Beginning from the fundamental photocatalytic mechanism, this review then provides in‐depth insights into several modification strategies of ZnIn₂S₄, extending from defect engineering, facet engineering, cocatalyst loading to junction engineering, enabling the synergistic construction of high‐performance ZnIn₂S₄‐based systems. Subsequently, the structure‐performance relation of ZnIn₂S₄‐based photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution (HER), overall water splitting (OWS), and CO₂ reduction applications in the last 4 years will be discussed and concluded by the future perspectives of this frontier. image