Experimental investigation shows chiral CdZnS boosts water splitting efficiency, implying new pathways for solar fuel conversion.
Regulating electron spin polarization through intrinsic material structures represents a promising strategy to optimize charge carrier kinetics in photocatalytic systems. Herein, we demonstrate a novel approach to enhance overall water splitting efficiency by engineering chiral CdZnS nanostructures as spin‐selective filters. The helical arrangement of CdZnS nanocrystals induces asymmetric spin‐dependent electronic states, which suppresses spin‐dependent recombination pathways and facilitates directional charge migration. Experimental characterization reveals that the photocatalytic activity of L‐CdZnS is 2.8 times greater than that of its achiral counterparts, rac‐CdZnS. In the absence of sacrificial agents, the hydrogen evolution rate under simulated sunlight reaches 1.258 mmol g −1 h −1 , while the carrier lifetime is extended by approximately 24%. This work establishes a paradigm for designing spin‐engineered photocatalysts, where chiral nanostructures serve as intrinsic spintronic components to decouple charge separation and recombination dynamics. The strategy provides a scalable pathway for developing high‐efficiency solar‐to‐fuel conversion systems.
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Liu et al. (2025) studied this question.
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