Accelerated sonochemical fabrication of MIn2S4 (M = Zn, Mg, Ni, Co) for ultra-high photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production

[Display omitted] •Ternary metal sulfide MIn2S4 (M = M = Zn, Mg, Ni, Co) were prepared by sonochemical method.•sonochemical method can significantly reduce the synthesis time.•sonoZnIn2S4 photocatalytic H2O2 production rate is 3.0 times than that of solZnIn2S4 synthesized via solvothermal method.•The sonochemical method contributed to achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ternary metal sulfide (MIn2S4) by virtue of large extinction coefficient, suitable band gap and stability, has been proposed as a candidate for photocatalytic synthesis hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). However, MIn2S4 is conventionally synthesized by solvothermal method that is generally characterized by tedious operational steps and long reaction time. In this work, four sonoMIn2S4 (M = Zn, Mg, Ni, Co) were successfully prepared by sonochemical method within 2 h. These as-synthesized sonoMIn2S4 delivered much high-efficient photocatalytic H2O2 generation. Particularly, the sonoZnIn2S4 presented H2O2 production rate of 21295.5 μmol∙g−1∙h−1 in water/benzylalcohol system, which is 3.0 times that of ZnIn2S4 prepared by solvothermal method. The remarkably improved photocatalytic performance of sonoZnIn2S4 might be due to the multiple defects and fast electron-hole pair separation caused by ultrasound cavitation effect. Other metal sulfide photocatalysts with high performance were efficiently fabricated by facile sonochemical technology as well. The sonochemical method realized the rapid preparation of metal sulfide photocatalysts and efficient production of H2O2, which benefits to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including SDG-7 and SDG-12.