Review on Metal Chalcogenides and Metal Chalcogenide-Based Nanocomposites in Photocatalytic Applications

Photocatalysis has emerged as a potential solution to mitigate the growing environmental pollution and clean energy challenges. Thus, the acceleration of photoreactions in the presence of a photocatalyst have performed a significant role in the advancements of photocatalytic applications such as degradation of pollutants, hydrogen generation and carbon dioxide reduction, amongst other applications. Although metal oxides have been significantly applied as photocatalysts in a variety of photocatalytic applications, their wide band gap limits their visible-light photocatalysis. Consequently, chalcogenide nanomaterials showing a narrow band gap have emerged as pioneering photocatalysts for photocatalytic applications due to their effective visible-light driven photocatalysis. This compact review therefore provides a comprehensive overview of various chalcogenide nanomaterials and their applications in major photocatalytic reactions. Systematically, insights into the fundamental properties, classes and major photocatalytic application, as well as the mechanistic understanding of various metal-based chalcogenide nanomaterials were discussed.