Nanomaterials Centre, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2014 May 23;5:696-710. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.5.82. eCollection 2014.
To better utilize the sunlight for efficient solar energy conversion, the research on visible-light active photocatalysts has recently attracted a lot of interest. The photosensitization of transition metal oxides is a promising approach for achieving effective visible-light photocatalysis. This review article primarily discusses the recent progress in the realm of a variety of nanostructured photosensitizers such as quantum dots, plasmonic metal nanostructures, and carbon nanostructures for coupling with wide-bandgap transition metal oxides to design better visible-light active photocatalysts. The underlying mechanisms of the composite photocatalysts, e.g., the light-induced charge separation and the subsequent visible-light photocatalytic reaction processes in environmental remediation and solar fuel generation fields, are also introduced. A brief outlook on the nanostructure photosensitization is also given.
为了更有效地利用太阳光进行太阳能转换，最近人们对可见光活性光催化剂的研究产生了浓厚的兴趣。过渡金属氧化物的敏化是实现有效可见光光催化的一种很有前途的方法。本文主要讨论了各种纳米结构光催化剂（如量子点、等离子体金属纳米结构和碳纳米结构）与宽带隙过渡金属氧化物结合用于设计更好的可见光活性光催化剂的最新进展。还介绍了复合光催化剂的基本机制，例如在环境修复和太阳能燃料生成领域中光诱导电荷分离和随后的可见光光催化反应过程。还简要展望了纳米结构敏化作用。
