Recent Progress in the Development of Semiconductor‐Based Photocatalyst Materials for Applications in Photocatalytic Water Splitting and Degradation of Pollutants

Abstract

Photocatalytic approaches in the visible region show promising potential in photocatalytic water splitting and water treatment to boost water purification efficiency. For this reason, developing cost‐effective and efficient photocatalysts for environmental remediation is a growing need, and semiconductor photocatalysts have now received more interest owing to their excellent activity and stability. Recently, several metal oxides, sulfides, and nitrides‐based semiconductors for water splitting and photodegradation of pollutants have been developed. However, the existing challenges, such as high over potential, wide band gap as well as fast recombination of charge carriers of most of the semiconductors limit their photocatalytic properties. This review summarizes the recent state‐of‐the‐art first‐principles research progress in the design of effective visible‐light‐response semiconductor photocatalysts through several modification processes with a focus on density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Recent developments to the exchange‐correlation effect, such as hybrid functionals, DFT + U as well as methods beyond DFT are also emphasized. Recent discoveries on the origin, fundamentals, and the underlying mechanisms of the interfacial electron transfer, band gap reduction, enhanced optical absorption, and electron–holes separation are presented. Highlights on the challenges and proposed strategies in developing advanced semiconductor photocatalysts for the application in water splitting and degradation of pollutants are proposed.

Comparison of the activities of C2N and BCNO towards Congo red degradation

“…, where R is the reflectance and F(R) is the Kubelka-( )( 1 -) 2 /2 Munk function. The band gap was estimated through a Tauc plot [21,22].…”

“…In recent years, semiconductor-based materials have found one of their key applications in the degradation of contaminants. The removal of biological and organic/inorganic water pollutants has become a burgeoning field of research [1,2]. Carbon-based materials (viz.…”

2D CdO‐Based Heterostructure as a Promising Visible Light Water‐Splitting Photocatalyst

“…As an ideal photocatalyst for water splitting, 1) it should possess a suitable bandgap ( E g ) of around 2 eV to take full advantage of visible light that accounts for 43% of solar energy, 2) the band edge positions should be suitable for thermodynamically feasible water redox processes, and 3) it should have a slower carrier recombination rate and good charge carrier mobility . Since Fujisima and Honda first reported their work on hydrogen production by water splitting in the spotlight, many photocatalysts have been developed . However, the photocatalytic efficiency of these materials is still rather low due to the inability for visible light utilization or inappropriate band edge position.…”

One‐Step Solvothermal Synthesis of BiPO4/Bi2MoO6 Heterostructure with Oxygen Vacancies and Z‐Scheme System for Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

“…In the past few years, semiconductor‐based photocatalysis has been considered to be the most hopeful and efficiently environmental clean technology to remove and degrade organic pollutants by use of solar energy . Recently, BiPO 4 photocatalysts have been paid a lot of attention for photocatalytic reactions practically due to its excellent photocatalytic activity than titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) .…”