Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity of BiOI/BiOCl Heterojunctions: Key Role of Crystal Facet Combination

By Liming Sun, Liyun Xiang, Xian Zhao, Chunjiang Jia, Jun Yang, Zhao Jin, Xiu-feng Cheng, Weiliu Fan. 2015

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Two comparable models of BiOI/BiOCl heterojuctions with different interface structures (crystal surface orientation and crystal surface combination), denoted as BiOI(001)/BiOCl(001) and BiOI(001)/BiOCl(010), have been prepared via integrating heterojuncton nanostructure construction with crystal facet engineering. BiOI(001)/BiOCl(010) had a greater degree of lattice mismatch and displayed higher visible-light photocatalytic activity than BiOI(001)/BiOCl(001). In general, the activity of a photocatalyst (ηPC) has a positive correlation with light harvesting (ηLH), charge separation (ηCS), and charge injection (ηCI). On the basis of the experimental results, we considered that the higher ηCI value of BiOI(001)/BiOCl(010) was the main reason for its better visible-light photocatalytic performance. In combination with theoretical calculations, we found that the higher ηCI value of BiOI(001)/BiOCl(010) was the result of a shorter photogenerated electron diffusion distance, assisted by the self-induced internal...

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7e5cc6b08da6b8f146d1562be8b8cce5ccf4d6c7