Morphology Matters: 0D/2D WO₃ Nanoparticle‐Ruthenium Oxide Nanosheet Composites for Enhanced Photocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction Rates

Abstract

In the field of artificial photosynthesis with semiconductor light harvesters, the default cocatalyst morphologies are isotropic, 0D nanoparticles. Herein, the use of highly anisotropic 2D ruthenium oxide nanosheet (RONS) cocatalysts as an approach to enhance photocatalytic oxygen evolution (OER) rates on commercial WO3 nanoparticles (0D light harvester) is presented. At optimal cocatalyst loadings and identical photocatalysis conditions, WO3 impregnated with RONS (RONS/WO3) shows a fivefold increase in normalized photonic efficiency compared to when it is impregnated with conventional ruthenium oxide (rutile) nanoparticles (RONP/WO3). The superior RONS/WO3 performance is attributed to two special properties of the RONS: i) lower electrochemical water oxidation overpotential for RONS featuring highly active edge sites, and ii) decreased parasitic light absorption on RONS. Evidence is presented that OER photocatalytic performance can be doubled with control of RONS edges and it is shown that compared to WO3 impregnated with RONP, the advantageous optical properties and geometry of RONS decrease the fraction of light absorbed by the cocatalyst, thus reducing the parasitic light absorption on the RONS/WO3 composite. Therefore, the results presented in the current study are expected to promote engineering of cocatalyst morphology as a complementary concept to optimize light harvester‐cocatalyst composites for enhanced photocatalytic efficiency.

Synergistic Coupling of Photocatalysis and Thermocatalysis for Efficient CO2 Conversion by Direct Z‐Scheme WO3/WS2

“…Meanwhile, the Raman bands associated with WS 2 could be observed at 351 and 416 cm −1 . WOS shows two typical peaks at 351 and 416 cm −1 representing WS 2 in the WOS heterostructure [4–41] …”

“…However, there is a high demand for the structure of energy band and effective contact. It is well known that tungsten trioxide matches the energy band structure of WS 2 , allowing lateral Z‐scheme heterostructures without structural defects [29–32] . More importantly, TMDCs‐based Z‐scheme heterostructures for CO 2 conversion in photothermal catalysis are rarely reported.…”

“…It is well known that tungsten trioxide matches the energy band structure of WS 2 , allowing lateral Z-scheme heterostructures without structural defects. [29][30][31][32] More importantly, TMDCs-based Z-scheme heterostructures for CO 2 conversion in photothermal catalysis are rarely reported. Moreover, on the basis of heterojunction construction, through enriching the multidimensional morphology of materials, it can also improve the efficiency of light energy conversion caused by slow photon and multiple scattering effects.…”

Visible Mie resonances in dielectric hollow spheres: Principle, regulation, and applications

“…Different from nonabsorbing silica hollow spheres, semiconductor‐based materials have broader applications such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics [45–48] . Therefore, more efforts are required for exploring modulation strategies for resonant Mie scattering in semiconductor hollow spheres.…”

“…Different from nonabsorbing silica hollow spheres, semiconductor-based materials have broader applications such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. [45][46][47][48] Therefore, more efforts are required for exploring modulation strategies for resonant Mie scattering in semiconductor hollow spheres. For instance, one of our previous studies focused on the synthesis of hollow carbon-containing TiO 2 nanospheres since TiO 2 has been extensively investigated for energy and environment applications.…”