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Catalysts
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Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Solar-Driven Water Splitting
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Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Solar-Driven Water Splitting

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Photocatalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 2473

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Wenjian Fang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Electrical and Energy Power Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China
Interests: photocatalysis; overall water splitting; bismuth-based composite oxides; bandgap tuning; NIR absorption

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogen is a potential energy carrier that can release energy with the only by-product being water, which would make a contribution to tackling climate change by reducing carbon footprints and moving towards carbon neutrality. So, hydrogen production through solar-driven water splitting is indisputably one of the most promising green technologies to utilize solar energy. Despite decades of research, the performance still falls far short of the minimum requirement of 5% solar-to-hydrogen (STH) energy conversion efficiency. The poor performance of photocatalytic water splitting is mainly due to the low absorption efficiency, the difficult charge separation and the slow surface reaction rate. To address these barriers, many strategies in heterogeneous photocatalysts for solar-driven water splitting have been adopted, such as surface morphology control, surface modification and surface heterojunction, cocatalyst loading, bandgap tuning, external physical field coupling, etc.

This Special Issue of the journal Catalysts entitled ‘Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Solar-Driven Water Splitting’ aims to publish original research articles, reviews/mini-reviews, and perspectives on various topics related to the topic of water splitting for hydrogen. Research articles involving the recent progress made in the improvement of photocatalytic performance are also welcome. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Visible-light photocatalysts such as g-C3N4, phosphorus, metal (oxy)nitride, metal (oxy)sulfide, etc.;
  • Surface engineering of photocatalysts such as morphology, surface modification;
  • HER cocatalysts and OER cocatalysts;
  • Heterojunction construction;
  • Photocatalysis coupling by external physical fields.

Dr. Wenjian Fang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • photocatalysis
  • water splitting
  • hydrogen
  • visible light
  • surface engineering
  • cocatalyst
  • heterojunction
  • photothermal catalysis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 11962 KiB  
Article
Dispersible Supertetrahedral Chalcogenide T3 Clusters: Photocatalytic Activity and Photogenerated Carrier Dynamics
by Haiyan Yin, Yifan Liu, Abdusalam Ablez, Yanqi Wang, Qianqian Hu and Xiaoying Huang
Catalysts 2023, 13(8), 1160; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13081160 - 27 Jul 2023
Viewed by 773
Abstract
Herein, we synthesized two isostructural supertetrahedral T3 cluster-based chalcogenide compounds by an ionic liquid-assisted precursor technique, namely [Bmmim]6In10Q16Cl4∙(MIm)4 (Q = S (In-S), Q = Se (In-Se), Bmmim = 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium, [...] Read more.
Herein, we synthesized two isostructural supertetrahedral T3 cluster-based chalcogenide compounds by an ionic liquid-assisted precursor technique, namely [Bmmim]6In10Q16Cl4∙(MIm)4 (Q = S (In-S), Q = Se (In-Se), Bmmim = 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium, MIm = 1- methylimidazole). The two compounds consist of a pure inorganic discrete supertetrahedral [In10Q16Cl4]6- T3 cluster and six charge-balancing [Bmmim]+ anions. The T3 clusters could be highly dispersed in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), exposing more photocatalytic active sites, which makes the highly-dispersed In-Se cluster exhibit ~5 times higher photocatalytic H2 evolution activity than that of the solid-state under visible light irradiation. Comparatively, the photocatalytic performance of the highly-dispersed In-S cluster is only slightly higher than that of the solid state, as its inferior visible-light absorption capability limits the effective utilization of photons. More importantly, through tracking the photogenerated carriers dynamics of highly-dispersed T3 clusters by ultrafast transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy, we found that the photogenerated electrons in the In-S cluster would suffer a rapid internal deactivation process under illumination, whereas the photoexcited electrons in the In-Se cluster can be captured by its surface active centers that would effectively reduce its photogenerated carrier recombination, contributing to the significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity. This work enriches the species of highly-dispersed metal-chalcogenide nanoclusters and firstly investigates the relationship between the structures and photocatalytic performances of nanoclusters by ultrafast excited-state dynamics, which is expected to promote the development of atomically precise nano-chemistry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Solar-Driven Water Splitting)
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15 pages, 5096 KiB  
Article
Generation Mechanism of the Defects in g-C3N4 Synthesized in N2 Atmosphere and the Method for Improving Photocatalysis Activity
by Xinye Chang, Huiqing Fan, Lin Lei, Xiaobo Wu, Weijia Wang and Longtao Ma
Catalysts 2023, 13(2), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13020269 - 25 Jan 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1471
Abstract
One of the most important methods for modifying semiconductors is defect engineering, but only the right quantity of defects in the right chemical environment can produce desirable results. Heat treatment processes associated with g-C3N4 are occasionally carried out in N [...] Read more.
One of the most important methods for modifying semiconductors is defect engineering, but only the right quantity of defects in the right chemical environment can produce desirable results. Heat treatment processes associated with g-C3N4 are occasionally carried out in N2 atmosphere, however, the catalytic performance of g-C3N4 produced by direct condensation of only nitrogen-rich precursors in N2 atmosphere is often unsatisfactory. This is typically attributed to the introduction of numerous defects, but the actual relationship between the formation of defects and the N2 atmosphere is rarely explained, and the resulting quantity of defects is difficult to control. We propose that the melam to melem transition is restricted due to the lack of O2 during the heat treatment of the nitrogen-rich precursor of g-C3N4 in N2 atmosphere, which leads to a substantial quantity of defects in the synthesized g-C3N4. To enhance its photocatalytic property, we propose a method to reduce the quantity of defects due to calcinating in N2 atmosphere by protonating the precursor in a way that increases the polymerization of the product. The test analysis indicated that only a moderate quantity of defects that contribute to electron excitation and enhance the separation efficiency and density of photogenerated carriers were retained, and the hydrogen evolution performance of the prepared catalyst was significantly improved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Solar-Driven Water Splitting)
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