Bassi Prince Saurabh, Wong Lydia Helena, Barber James
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore639798.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2014 Jun 28;16(24):11834-42. doi: 10.1039/c3cp55174a.
In natural photosynthesis, the water splitting reaction of photosystem II is the source of the electrons/reducing equivalents for the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbohydrate while oxygen is formed as the by-product. Similarly, for artificial photosynthesis where the end product is a solar fuel such as hydrogen, a water splitting-oxygen evolving system is required to supply high energy electrons to drive the reductive reactions. Very attractive candidates for this purpose are iron based semiconductors which have band gaps corresponding to visible light and valence band energies sufficient to oxidise water. The most studied system is hematite (Fe2O3) which is highly abundant with many attributes for incorporation into photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. We review the recent progress in manipulating hematite for this purpose through nanostructuring, doping and surface modifications. We also consider several hybrid iron-based semiconducting systems like ferrites and iron titanates as alternatives to hematite for light driven water splitting emphasizing their advantages with respect to their band levels and charge transport properties.
在自然光合作用中，光系统II的水分解反应是将二氧化碳还原为碳水化合物所需电子/还原当量的来源，同时形成氧气作为副产物。同样，对于以太阳能燃料（如氢气）为最终产物的人工光合作用，需要一个水分解析氧系统来提供高能电子以驱动还原反应。基于铁的半导体是实现这一目的非常有吸引力的候选材料，它们具有与可见光对应的带隙和足以氧化水的价带能量。研究最多的体系是赤铁矿（Fe2O3），它储量丰富，具有许多可用于光化学电池（PEC）的特性。我们综述了通过纳米结构、掺杂和表面改性等手段为此目的对赤铁矿进行调控的最新进展。我们还考虑了几种混合铁基半导体体系，如铁氧体和钛酸铁，作为赤铁矿用于光驱动水分解的替代材料，并强调它们在能带水平和电荷传输特性方面的优势。
