Efficient charge separation is of crucial importance for improving photocatalytic activity for solar pure water splitting, yet precise control over this process in composite photocatalysts is still a challenge to date. In this presentation, I will give a short introduction about our recent work on charge behavior manipulation via embedding interfacial elemental bridges in photocatalyst. The elaborate hetero/homogeneous bridges as the unique transfer channels enable directional charge flow between each component in the composite photocatalyst. As thus, the kinetics of charge transfer is substantially improved, leading to greatly boosted photocatalytic performance toward pure water splitting. Our first work is about the synthesis of a Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst made of Fe2O3, g-C3N4, and an amorphous carbon layer at interface of Fe2O3 and g-C3N4 (Fe2O3@C/g-C3N4). The in-situ formed intermediate carbon layer on the surface of Fe2O3 functionalizes as an interfacial elemental bridge to ensure the accelerated electron transfer from the conduction band of Fe2O3 to the valance band of g-C3N4. It is worth pointing out that constrained by the relatively weak chemical interaction induced by such heterogeneous carbon bridge, photocatalytic pure water splitting is still disable to be triggered. It is therefore desirable to design a homogeneous elemental bridge with stronger interaction at the interface. In the second part, I will emphasize the preparation of a homogeneous phosphorus bridge at the interface of phosphatized composite photocatalysts in the form of PCN/CoxNiyP, PCN/RP/CoxP, and CZS-P/RP. As expected, these photocatalysts show excellent photocatalytic behavior in terms of both activity and stability toward photocatalytic pure water splitting. This work opens a door toward photocatalyst design for efficient pure water splitting by introducing atomic-scale interfacial elemental channel for effective charge transfer.

Interfacial electron transfer via elemental bridges enables efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

ACS Fall 2021

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