Abstract
Heterostructure provides a powerful route in manipulating electrical transport, optical response, electrolytic water splitting and water treatment of complex oxides. As a model for noble metal/ complex oxide heterostructures, we have successfully prepared Au/BiVO4 (BVO) heterostructures in which the Au nanoparticles (NPs) with various sizes and densities were uniformly deposited on the {001} facets of epitaxial BVO thin films. The heterostructures exhibit significantly enhanced photoactivities in both dye degradation and electrolytic water splitting. By employing X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the energy band alignment of Au/BVO heterojunction suggests a charge separation at their interfaces, that can manipulate the photoexcited electron-hole pairs and photocatalytic efficiency of the heterostructures. Photogenerated carrier injection, which mainly affects the photoactivity of photocatalysis, was detected across Au/BVO interfaces by ultrafast dynamics spectroscopy. This study delivers a general approach to probe and understand the photochemistry of noble metal-complex oxide heterostructures for photoconversion applications.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 625-633 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Nano Energy |
Volume | 15 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2015 |
Keywords
- BiVO4
- Charge transfer
- Energy band alignment
- Gold nanoparticles
- Photochemistry
- Water splitting
- EFFICIENT PHOTOCATALYSTS
- WATER OXIDATION
- VISIBLE-LIGHT
- NANOSTRUCTURES
- NANOPARTICLES
- PROGRESS
- FACETS
- ENERGY
- STATE