Miao Yingxuan, Zhao Yunxuan, Zhang Shuai, Shi Run, Zhang Tierui
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
Adv Mater. 2022 Jul;34(29):e2200868. doi: 10.1002/adma.202200868. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
Whilst the photocatalytic technique is considered to be one of the most significant routes to address the energy crisis and global environmental challenges, the solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency is still far from satisfying practical industrial requirements, which can be traced to the suboptimal bandgap and electronic structure of photocatalysts. Strain engineering is a universal scheme that can finely tailor the bandgap and electronic structure of materials, hence supplying a novel avenue to boost their photocatalytic performance. Accordingly, to explore promising directions for certain breakthroughs in strained photocatalysts, an overview on the recent advances of strain engineering from the basics of strain effect, creations of strained materials, as well as characterizations and simulations of strain level is provided. Besides, the potential applications of strain engineering in photocatalysis are summarized, and a vision for the future controllable-electronic-structure photocatalysts by strain engineering is also given. Finally, perspectives on the challenges for future strain-promoted photocatalysis are discussed, placing emphasis on the creation and decoupling of strain effect, and the modification of theoretical frameworks.
尽管光催化技术被认为是应对能源危机和全球环境挑战的最重要途径之一，但太阳能到化学能的转换效率仍远未达到实际工业要求，这可归因于光催化剂的带隙和电子结构不理想。应变工程是一种通用方案，可以精细地调整材料的带隙和电子结构，从而为提高其光催化性能提供一条新途径。因此，为了探索应变光催化剂取得某些突破的有前景方向，本文从应变效应的基础、应变材料的制备以及应变水平的表征和模拟等方面，对应变工程的最新进展进行了综述。此外，总结了应变工程在光催化中的潜在应用，并对应变工程实现未来可控电子结构光催化剂进行了展望。最后，讨论了未来应变促进光催化面临的挑战，重点强调了应变效应的产生与解耦以及理论框架的修正。
