Designing high efficacy photocatalysts is a promising way to improve solar fuel production efficiency. In this work, we prepared a core/shell composite of loose ZnCr layered double hydroxide nanosheets modified CdS nanorods for efficient visible light driven photocatalytic hydrogen production. The highest hydrogen production rate achieved 425.8 μmol·h⁻¹ without adding any noble metal cocatalyst under the visible light stimulus, which is 22.4 times that of 1 wt.% Pt-modified CdS. The corresponding apparent quantum yield is 13.9% at 420 nm. It is revealed that the synergistic actions of the interfacial redox shuttle of Cr³⁺/Cr^δ+ and the interfacial electric field enable the efficient separation of photoinduced charge carriers between two components via a Z-scheme energy band configuration. Meanwhile, with the hydrogen evolution contribution of Zn²⁺, a remarkable improvement in photocatalytic performance was achieved in contrast to bare CdS. This work provides an effective methodology to construct highly efficient and economically viable photocatalysts for solar H₂ production and mechanistic study.

Two-dimensional (2D) oxide can be continuously produced by bubbling oxygen into liquid metals and the harvesting of these oxide relies on the proper choice of dispersion solvents. The mass-production of ligand-free 2D materials from high melting-point metals will not be possible if the limited stability of the traditional dispersion solvents is not circumvented. Herein, liquid tin was used for the first time in the bubbling protocol and 2D tin oxide was obtained in molten salts. The nanosheets were studied with combined microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, and high-density grain boundaries was identified between the sub-5-nm nano-crystallites in the nanosheets. It gives rise to the high performance in electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction. Density-functional-theory based calculation was applied to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship between the activity, selectivity, and the grain- boundary features. The molten-salt based protocol could be explored for the synthesis of a library of functional 2D oxides.