Solar-light photocatalytic water-splitting for hydrogen generation is an ideal way to generate clean energy. Because most photocatalysts can only work under ultraviolet (UV) and short-wavelength visible (Vis) lights irradiation, preparation of photocatalysts that can absorb long-wavelength Vis and near-infrared (NIR) lights are of vital importance. Elements doping and morphologies tuning were used to improve the photocatalytic hydrogen generation of some typical semiconductors, taking g-C3N4, La2Ti2O7 and ZnIn2S4 as examples. Photo-sensitizers including black phosphorous (BP) nanosheets and quantum dots, Au nanoparticles and nanorods, and oxygen-deficient WO3 were composed with photocatalytic semiconductors to obtain binary or ternary photocatalysts. A serial of photocatalysts such as WO3-x/CdS, Au-La2Ti¬2O7, BP-Au-CdS and BP-CdS-La2Ti2O7 that can work efficiently under UV-Vis-NIR light for hydrogen generation have been prepared. First-principles calculation and experimental characterization have been jointly employed to investigate the interface structure, clarify the photo-generated electron and holes transfer procedure, and confirm the key influence factors to the photocatalytic activity.
Junying Zhang is a full professor in school of Physics, Beihang University, China. Her research interests focus on first-principles calculations and structure-properties relationship of materials for clean energy conversion and storage. Her publications have been cited over 5,900 times with h-index of 41 according to Web of Science. He has been awarded the honours of Excellent Graduate of Tsinghua University, Beijing Nova of Science and technology, New Century Excellent Talents in University of the Ministry of Education of China, Beihang Blue Sky Scholar, and the second prize for Natural Sciences Awards of the Ministry of Education of China.
Share this page on your timeline