As emerging noble metal-free co-catalysts, transition metal phosphides have been employed to improve photocatalytic H2 production activity. Herein, the metallicity of CoP, as a representative phosphide, and the Schottky effect between CoP and g-C3N4 are confirmed via theoretical calculations. Then, a 2D/2D structure is designed to enlarge the Schottky effect between the interfaces, for which the apparent quantum efficiency of the photocatalytic H2 evolution is 2.1 times that of corresponding 0D/2D heterojunctions. The morphology, microstructure, chemical composition, and physical nature of pristine CoP, g-C3N4, and the composites are characterized in order to investigate the dynamic behavior of photo-induced charge carriers between CoP and g-C3N4. Based on the measurements, it is proposed that the efficient electron collecting effect of CoP can be attributed to the superior interfacial contact and Schottky junction between the CoP and g-C3N4 interfaces. Furthermore, the excellent electrical conductivity and low overpotential of CoP make water reduction easier. This work demonstrates that the construction of a 2D/2D structure based on a suitable Fermi level is crucial for enhancing the Schottky effect of transition metal phosphides.

By means of oxygen vacancies (OV) and spontaneous chemical redox approach, Au–BiOCl-OV with enhanced interfacial interaction is fabricated for in-situ reduction of CO2 through simultaneously adsorption and activation on OV sites.

The development of inexpensive visible-light-driven photocatalysts is an important prerequisite for realizing the industrial application of photocatalysis technology. In this paper, an earth-abundant FeAlO photocatalyst is prepared via facile solution combustion synthesis. Density functional theory and the scanning Kelvin probe technique are employed to ascertain the positions of the energy bands and the Fermi level. Phenol is taken as a model pollutant to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of FeAlO. The scavenger experiment results, ˙OH-trapping fluorescence technique, and electron spin resonance measurements confirm that the superoxide anion radical is the main active species generated in the photocatalytic process, which also further corroborates the proposed electronic structure of FeAlO. The degradation experiments and O temperature programmed desorption results over various samples verify that the crystallinity degree is a more important factor than the oxygen adsorption ability in determining photocatalytic activity.

Cl-Doped Bi2O2CO3 is prepared using ionic liquids as dopants and the oxygen-vacancy-induced photocatalytic mechanism is revealed.