Interfacial charge regulation of -In2S3 photoanode via Tm3+doping toward enhanced photoelectrochemical performance

The photoelectrochemical properties of the ss-In2S3 are seriously restricted by the severe electron-hole pairs recombination. Introducing foreign ions is a powerful means to regulate the properties of ss-In2S3, because of its special defect spinel structure. There are few reports that rare earth ion doped ss-In2S3 nanosheets improve their photoelectrochemical properties. Herein, a novel nanostructure photoanode was fabricated using Tm3+ doped ss-In2S3 by one-pot in situ hydrothermal method. The photoelectrochemical performance has the highest enhancement when the mole ratio of Tm3+ is 1%. The experimental results indicate that the carrier separation and injection efficiency of ss-In2S3 after Tm3+ doping are increased to 8.34% and 76.11%, respectively. The introduction of Tm3+ in the ss-In2S3 may yield plenty of shallow electron capture levels below conduction band minimum, which can capture photogenerated electrons to promote the separation of electron-hole pair and improve the photoelectrochemical properties of In2S3. This work sheds light on the rare earth ions doped semiconductor photoanode for photoelectrochemical application.