The effective improvement of the carrier transport efficiency is one of the most effective strategies for enhancing the sunlight conversion efficiency of photocatalysts. Magnetoresistance is a typical spintronic phenomenon that can change the resistance of the materials under the magnetic field. In this work, we proposed a magnetoresistance-related strategy to boost carrier transfer efficiency, and applied it into a ZnFe2O4/Ag magnetic photocatalyst with a Si nanorod structure to further increase photocatalytic performance by adding magnetic field.Experimental results show that the photocurrent density of ZnFe2O4/Ag with a Si nanorod structure is 0.61 mA/cm2, and largely higher than that of planar ZnFe2O4/Ag, which is mainly because of the high specific surface area of ZnFe2O4/Ag nanorod structure. When a magnetic field of 1000 Oe is added, the photocurrent density of ZnFe2O4/Ag nanorods can be further enhanced to 1.37 mA/cm2. The I-V test, magnetic behavior measurement and energy band study all demonstrated that the enhanced photocatalytic performance under the magnetic field could result from the negative magnetoresistance for ZnFe2O4/Ag nanorods. The interface effect between ZnFe2O4 and Ag made the photocatalyst having a larger negative magnetoresistance,thus the introduction of magnetic field could further improve the transfer of carriers.These results will provide a new way for the development of efficient photocatalysts, and make it possible to further improve the performance of existing photocatalysts.

Enhanced photocatalytic performance of ZnFe2O4/Ag magnetic photocatalyst regulated by magnetic field

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.