Recent Progress on Visible Light Responsive Heterojunctions for Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

Photocatalysis has attracted much attention in recent years due to its potential in solving energy and environmental issues. Even though numerous achievements have been made, the photocatalytic systems developed to date are still far from practical applications due to the low efficiency and poor durability. Efficient light absorption and charge separation are two of the key factors for the exploration of high performance photocatalytic systems, which is generally difficult to be obtained in a single photocatalyst. The combination of various materials to form heterojunctions provides an effective way to better harvest solar energy and to facilitate charge separation and transfer, thus enhancing the photocatalytic activity and stability. This review concisely summarizes the recent development of visible light responsive heterojunctions, including the preparation and performances of semiconductor/semiconductor junctions, semiconductor/cocatalyst junctions, semiconductor/metal junctions, semiconductor/non-metal junctions, and surface heterojunctions, and their mechanism for enhanced light harvesting and charge separation/transfer.

Novel g‐C3N4 nanosheets/CDs/BiOCl photocatalysts with exceptional activity under visible light

“…In recent decades, with rapid population growth and huge industrialization, a larger number of hazardous organic and inorganic pollutants have been released to the environment . Semiconductor‐mediated photocatalytic degradation and removal of these pollutants are unique approaches using natural resources . Furthermore, photocatalytic processes have gained much more attention from research community, due to their promising potential to solve energy shortage .…”

Recent Progress on Photo‐Electrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

“…In addition, plenty of modification methods have also been proposed to futher increase the CO 2 reduction efficiency and stability of the photocathodes. For instance, combining with an n‐type semiconductor to form a p–n heterojunction can promote charge separation, while coating an overlayer of stable material on the surface of Cu 2 O will significantly enhance the stability . According to the photocathode materials involved, the detailed research progress of the photocathode and electroanode system is discussed in the following subsections.…”

Strategies for Efficient Solar Water Splitting Using Carbon Nitride

“…Amongst the available strategies, modifying the interfaces of a semiconductor by introducing other materials such as quantum dots, cocatalysts, and hetero/homo semiconductors, etc., has attracted much attention due to its great potential in separating photoexcited charges as well as improving the photocatalytic activities . Based on the species introduced to combine with g‐C 3 N 4 , the state‐of‐the‐art interfacial engineering for g‐C 3 N 4 can be generally divided into five types: carbon/g‐C 3 N 4 junction, cocatalyst/g‐C 3 N 4 junction, polymer/g‐C 3 N 4 junction, semiconductor/g‐C 3 N 4 junction, g‐C 3 N 4 /g‐C 3 N 4 isotype junction.…”

“…Noble metals such as Ag, Au, Pd and Pt have been considered as fascinating HECs for H 2 evolution . In addition to their function as HECs, noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) can also improve light harvesting due to their localize surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect . For instance, silver quantum cluster (Ag 9 ) was grafted on the surface of g‐C 3 N 4 for photocatalytic hydrogen generation, which exibited enhanced visible light absorption .…”