Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China.
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Centre for Computational Chemistry and Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Jun 19;56(26):7430-7434. doi: 10.1002/anie.201702943. Epub 2017 May 30.
Semiconductor photocatalysts are hardly employed for overall water splitting beyond 700 nm, which is due to both thermodynamic aspects and activation barriers. Metallic materials as photocatalysts are known to overcome this limitation through interband transitions for creating electron-hole pairs; however, the application of metallic photocatalysts for overall water splitting has never been fulfilled. Black tungsten nitride is now employed as a metallic photocatalyst for overall water splitting at wavelengths of up to 765 nm. Experimental and theoretical results together confirm that metallic properties play a substantial role in exhibiting photocatalytic activity under red-light irradiation for tungsten nitride. This work represents the first red-light responsive photocatalyst for overall water splitting, and may open a promising venue in searching of metallic materials as efficient photocatalysts for solar energy utilization.
半导体光催化剂在 700nm 以上的全水分解中几乎不被使用，这是由于热力学方面和活化能垒的原因。众所周知，金属材料作为光催化剂可以通过带间跃迁来克服这一限制，从而产生电子-空穴对；然而，金属光催化剂在全水分解中的应用从未得到实现。现在，黑钨酸铵被用作一种金属光催化剂，用于波长高达 765nm 的全水分解。实验和理论结果共同证实，金属性质在红光照耀下对氮化钨表现出光催化活性起着重要作用。这项工作代表了首例对全水分解有响应的红光光催化剂，可能为寻找金属材料作为太阳能利用的高效光催化剂开辟了一个有希望的途径。
