Transition-metal (oxy)nitride photocatalysts for water splitting

Abstract

Solar-driven water splitting based on particulate semiconductor materials is studied as a technology for green hydrogen production. Transition-metal (oxy)nitride photocatalysts are promising materials for overall water splitting (OWS) via a...

Nanostructured (oxy)nitrides controllably synthesized by flux-assisted nitridation for promoted photocatalytic water splitting

“…Up until now, series types of visible-light-responsive semiconductors have been developed, such as metal oxides, (oxy)nitrides, (oxy)sulfides, and halonitrides. 22,25,30,53–55 Among them, the (oxy)nitrides, the topic material in this review, are one such kind of semiconductor and are promising to be further developed for efficient photocatalytic water splitting due to the features of excellent electronic and optical properties, and outstanding photo-stability. 11 For general oxides, their VBM is typically composed of O 2p orbital, which results in deep valence band energy levels and a large band gap.…”

“…11 Flux-assisted nitridation is an advanced route that can balance the improvement of crystallinity and the inhibition of defect formation. 30 For example, two methods for the preparation of LaTiO 2 N crystallites were compared, of which one was the traditional route via the nitridation of La 2 Ti 2 O 7 precursor, and the other was the nitridation approach directly from precursors of La 2 O 3 and TiO 2 mixed with KCl flux. 43,98 Both LaTiO 2 N samples showed single crystalline in nature, indicating the feature of high crystallinity.…”

“…In addition, the nitrided particles tend to aggregate together with poor control in morphology, particle size, and purity. 26,30,31 To alleviate those issues, the flux-assisted nitridation method has been developed recently for the preparation of the promoted (oxy)nitrides. 32,33 In this route, the flux was introduced as the reaction solvent during the nitridation, which could accelerate the mass transfer, promote the nitridation kinetics, and improve the dispersity of the formed (oxy)nitrides.…”

Efficient Visible Light Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Boosting the Interfacial Electron Transfer in Mesoporous Mott–Schottky Heterojunctions of Co2P-Modified CdIn2S4 Nanocrystals

“…), − and (oxy)­nitrides (TaON, BaTaO 2 N, LaTiO 2 N, etc. ) , with desired structures and electronic properties have been synthesized. Nevertheless, the majority of these materials have achieved ambiguous success in hydrogen generation applications largely due to their rapid electron–hole recombination, poor photochemical stability, and high cost .…”

Integration of nonlinear two-photon excited fluorescence and photocatalysis boosts overall water splitting performance

“…3,4 Therefore, many approaches including ion doping, introducing defect states, coupling semiconductors, and constructing Z-schemes and S-schemes, have been proposed to expand the response of the photocatalyst systems to long-wave radiation. [5][6][7][8] Some representative works have reached milestones for boosting STH values in these cases; [9][10][11] however, the photocatalytic overall water splitting performance is still unsatisfactory.…”