Liu Chao, Fan Peng-Kai, Xie Xiao-Qi, Sun Ying-Jie, Li Yan, Wang Xiao-Jing
Engineering Research Center for Silicate Solid Waste Resource Utilization of Hebei Province, School of Gemmology and Material Science, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang 050031, China.
Hebei Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Control on Surface and Interface, College of Science, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Oct;623:267-276. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.05.046. Epub 2022 May 11.
Generally, it is important to ameliorate the co-catalyst used in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reactions (PHERs) to achieve efficient transfer and separation of photogenerated carriers, decrease the surface reaction energy barrier, and hence improve the photocatalytic activity. In this study, N-doped graphite carbon (GC) was introduced in situ to MoO to ensure the presence of well-dispersed active sites, lower the overpotential of hydrogen evolution, and further achieve high conductivity. Then, the MoO/GC composite obtained was used as a co-catalyst of ZnInS (ZIS) in a PHER, resulting in a great improvement in the photocatalytic activity. Given the metallicity and large work function of MoO/GC, a Schottky interface can form between MoO/GC and ZIS, which accelerates the transmission of photogenerated electrons. As a result, the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers improves, whereas the surface overpotential of PHERs clearly decreases for ZIS. This study proposes a new idea for exploiting efficient co-catalysts and promotes the wide and heavy use of carbon materials in the field of solar energy conversion.
一般来说，改善用于光催化析氢反应（PHERs）的助催化剂对于实现光生载流子的高效转移和分离、降低表面反应能垒从而提高光催化活性至关重要。在本研究中，将氮掺杂石墨碳（GC）原位引入到MoO中，以确保存在分散良好的活性位点，降低析氢过电位，并进一步实现高导电性。然后，将得到的MoO/GC复合材料用作PHER中ZnInS（ZIS）的助催化剂，导致光催化活性有了很大提高。鉴于MoO/GC的金属性和较大的功函数，MoO/GC和ZIS之间可以形成肖特基界面，这加速了光生电子的传输。结果，光生载流子的分离效率提高，而ZIS的PHER表面过电位明显降低。本研究为开发高效助催化剂提出了新思路，并促进了碳材料在太阳能转换领域的广泛和大量应用。
