The crystalline/amorphous contact in Cu₂O/Ta₂O₅ heterostructures: increasing its sunlight-driven overall water splitting efficiency

Abstract

Cu2O/a-Ta2O5 heterostructures exhibited a quantum efficiency level of 3% for overall water splitting under visible light irradiation (400–480 nm).

Carbon Sphere Template Derived Hollow Nanostructure for Photocatalysis and Gas Sensing

“…The improvement in photocatalytic performance primarily owes to the establishment of heterojunctions which accelerating carrier's separation efficiently confirmed by PL spectrum and electrochemical independence spectroscopy. While conventional heterojunctions are generally in form of crystalline/crystalline contact, Lou et al [82] have investigated a novel type of crystalline/amorphous heterostructure. A crystalline Cu 2 O/amorphous Ta 2 O 5 heterostructure fabricated by a two-step ion absorption approach based on carbon spheres template.…”

“…For photocatalysis, the more electron-hole pairs are photogenerated and come into play, the higher the efficiency will be. However, the recombination is proven to harmfully impede the process of water-splitting or degradation resulting in a low efficiency [27,37,82]. Hollow structures can shorten the transport distance of carries from bulk to their proper catalytic sites on the surface, which Other type-II hollow heterostructured photocatalysts derived from carbon sphere template such as CeO 2 /TiO 2 [89], WO 3 /TiO 2 [90], ZnO/CuO [91], ZnO/SnO 2 [92], and ZnO/ZnS [93] also showed enhanced photocatalytic pollutant degradation performance by the promotion of heterojunction.…”

“…For photocatalysis, the more electron-hole pairs are photogenerated and come into play, the higher the efficiency will be. However, the recombination is proven to harmfully impede the process of water-splitting or degradation resulting in a low efficiency [27,37,82]. Hollow structures can shorten the transport distance of carries from bulk to their proper catalytic sites on the surface, which suppress bulk recombination tremendously [37,77].…”

“…82 Zn 0.18 )(N 0.82 O 0.18 )[67]. Many scientists have improved the overall conversion efficiency of the system by preparing nanomorphological materials.…”

Porphyrin‐Based Organophotocatalysts

“…[6][7][8]. Most research studies in photocatalysis have been concentrated on the use of inorganic semiconductors, such as TiO 2 [9][10][11], Fe 2 O 3 [12][13][14], ZnO [15][16][17], and Cu 2 O [17][18][19] which mostly suffer from inefficient light absorption and hardness. Strategies to enhance the efficiency of these catalysts correlating with band engineering [20,21], texture modification [16,22], or configuration organization [23,24] always involve complicated fabrication processes.…”