This lecture presents the designing and preparation of photocatalyst and photoelectrocatalyst (PEC) systems for solar fuels production from water splitting. The cocatalysts and the junctions are discussed for constructing the highly efficient photocatalyst and photoelectrocatalyst systems. The bottleneck to produce hydrogen through photocatalysis is the developing of high active photocatalysts which have been extensively investigated and explored during last several decades. This talk will focus on the role of cocatalysts in photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis. The crucial roles of dual cocatalysts respectively for half reactions, oxidation and reduction are specially highlighted. Our research shows that the cocatalyst is necessary for hydrogen evolution or/and oxygen evolution, and the coloading of dual co-catalysts are absolutely necessary for improving the photocatalytic activity by reducing the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes and reducing the activation energy [1-3]. It is found that the oxidation half reaction is the most difficult part of the photocatalytic water splitting, and the cocatalyst to reduce the activation energy for oxygen evolution from water splitting essentially acts as the same role as the electrochemical catalysts to lower the overpotential. In addition to the cocatalysts, this presentation emphasizes the essential role of phase junction in the charge separation and transport. The phase junction formed between anatase and rutile phases of TiO2, andaand�phases of Ga2O3 have been demonstrated to be effective for charge separation and consequently promoting the hydrogen production activity of water splitting[4-5].

Solar fuels production by highly efficient photocatalysts and photoelectrocatalysts: Roles of cocatalysts and junctions

245th National Meeting (2013)

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