Hydrothermal synthesis of InTiS₃ and Ag₂InTiS₄ for electrocatalytic water oxidation and photocatalytic dye degradation application

The quest for environmentally benign, low cost yet highly efficient alternative energy resources has driven an extensive research on transition metal sulfides. Herein we report the synthesis of novel ternary InTiS₃ and quaternary Ag₂InTiS₄ nanomaterial using facile hydrothermal route. These synthesized nanomaterials were employed as catalyst both for electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well as for the photodegradation of organic pollutants. The cyclic voltammetry results demonstrated that both InTiS₃ and Ag₂InTiS₄ exhibits admirable activity with overpotential of 230 and 100 mV, respectively, to acquire the benchmark of 10 mA cm⁻² current density. Interestingly, both the catalyst shows selective photodegradation capability for azo dyes. As-synthesized Ag₂InTiS₄ shows 85% of degradation efficiency for CR removal while InTiS₃ acquires 75% removal efficiency for MB degradation. The obtained results suggest that the synthesis of indium and silver based multinary chalcogenide nanomaterial might be the resourceful electrocatalyst and photocatalyst material in the probable energy and environmental applications.