Highly efficient photocatalysis of p-type Cu2ZnSnS4 under visible-light illumination

• Kesterite CZTS nanocrystal powder was synthesized by one-pot method.
• First successful use CZTS nanocrystal powder as photocatalyst.
• CZTS shows an efficient photocatalysis under visible light irradiation.
• CZTS photocatalyst having excellent stability.

Cu2ZnSnS4, as a very promising p-type semiconductor material, has been extensively used in the study of solar cells owing to its suitable band gap (1.1–1.5 eV), large absorption coefficient of 104 cm−1 in the visible spectrum, good photo stability, nontoxicity and relative abundance of the component elements. In this paper, we have successfully synthesized p-type kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystal powder by facile one-pot method, and made our first successful attempt to use Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystal powder as a photocatalyst to degradation methyl orange under visible-light irradiation. The exciting results show that in the visible light region, Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystal powder possesses an excellent photocatalytic performance of K = 0.0317 min−1, nearly about 6 times of well known commercial P25 titania powder performance under the same conditions, which suggests that the p-type kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystal would be a promising candidate of photocatalyst.

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