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Nano Research 2022, 15(1): 438-445 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3498-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 01 June 2021

Effects of Bi-dopant and co-catalysts upon hole surface trapping on La2Ti2O7 nanosheet photocatalysts in overall solar water splitting

Show Author's Information Xiaoyan Cai1,2,  Liang Mao1,2,  Mamoru Fujitsuka3,  Tetsuro Majima3,  Sujan Kasani4,  Nianqiang Wu5,  Junying Zhang2( )
School of Materials Science and Physics Jiangsu Province Engineering Laboratory of High Efficient Energy Storage Technology and Equipment, China University of Mining and TechnologyXuzhou 221116 China
School of Physics Beihang UniversityBeijing 100191 China
The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN) Osaka University, Mihogaoka 8-1, IbarakiOsaka 567-0047 Japan
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering West Virginia UniversityMorgantown, WV 26506-6106 USA
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherst, MA 01003-9303 USA
Keywords:
photocatalyst, water splitting, co-catalyst, surface trap, solar fuel
Topics:
Photocatalysts
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Cai X, Mao L, Fujitsuka M, et al. Effects of Bi-dopant and co-catalysts upon hole surface trapping on La2Ti2O7 nanosheet photocatalysts in overall solar water splitting. Nano Research, 2022, 15(1): 438-445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3498-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Pristine and Bi-doped lanthanum titanium oxide (La2Ti2O7) nanosheets have been synthesized as photocatalysts for overall solar water splitting. The surface hole trap is a critical factor that limits the photocatalytic activity of pristine La2Ti2O7. Deposition of cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles on La2Ti2O7 cannot remove the surface traps although they are essential for enabling the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. It is interesting that doping bismuth (Bi) into La2Ti2O7 nanosheets has eliminated the surface traps due to surface enrichment of Bi. The Co-Pi/Bi-La2Ti2O7/Pt nanosheets exhibit increasing photocatalytic activity toward overall water splitting with increasing the Bi-dopant level up to 5 at.%. Further increasing the Bi-dopant level leads to the formation of localized states above the valence band, leading to the lifetime reduction of photogenerated charge-carriers, and jeopardizing the photocatalytic activity. This work proposes an effective strategy to address the surface trapping and surface catalysis issues in the nanostructured metal oxide photocatalysts.


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About this article

Effects of Bi-dopant and co-catalysts upon hole surface trapping on La2Ti2O7 nanosheet photocatalysts in overall solar water splitting

Show Author's information Xiaoyan Cai1,2, Liang Mao1,2, Mamoru Fujitsuka3, Tetsuro Majima3, Sujan Kasani4, Nianqiang Wu5, Junying Zhang2( )
School of Materials Science and Physics Jiangsu Province Engineering Laboratory of High Efficient Energy Storage Technology and Equipment, China University of Mining and TechnologyXuzhou 221116 China
School of Physics Beihang UniversityBeijing 100191 China
The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN) Osaka University, Mihogaoka 8-1, IbarakiOsaka 567-0047 Japan
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering West Virginia UniversityMorgantown, WV 26506-6106 USA
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherst, MA 01003-9303 USA

Abstract

Pristine and Bi-doped lanthanum titanium oxide (La2Ti2O7) nanosheets have been synthesized as photocatalysts for overall solar water splitting. The surface hole trap is a critical factor that limits the photocatalytic activity of pristine La2Ti2O7. Deposition of cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles on La2Ti2O7 cannot remove the surface traps although they are essential for enabling the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. It is interesting that doping bismuth (Bi) into La2Ti2O7 nanosheets has eliminated the surface traps due to surface enrichment of Bi. The Co-Pi/Bi-La2Ti2O7/Pt nanosheets exhibit increasing photocatalytic activity toward overall water splitting with increasing the Bi-dopant level up to 5 at.%. Further increasing the Bi-dopant level leads to the formation of localized states above the valence band, leading to the lifetime reduction of photogenerated charge-carriers, and jeopardizing the photocatalytic activity. This work proposes an effective strategy to address the surface trapping and surface catalysis issues in the nanostructured metal oxide photocatalysts.

Keywords: photocatalyst, water splitting, co-catalyst, surface trap, solar fuel

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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 08 February 2021
Revised: 05 April 2021
Accepted: 06 April 2021
Published: 01 June 2021
Issue date: January 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This project is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51972010 and 51472013), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Youth Fund, Nos. BK20190640 and BK20190641), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2019XKQYMS11). We thank the Open Sharing Fund for the large-scale instruments and equipment of China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), and the high-performance computing platform of Beihang University.

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