Long-Living Holes in Grey Anatase TiO2 Enable Noble-Metal-Free and Sacrificial-Agent-Free Water Splitting

Liu N, Mohajernia S, Nguyen NT, Hejazi S, Plass F, Kahnt A, Yokosawa T, Osvet A, Spiecker E, Guldi DM, Schmuki P (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Chemsuschem Wiley-VCH Verlag

DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202001045

Abstract

Titanium dioxide has been the benchmark semiconductor in photocatalysis for more than 40 years. Full water splitting, that is, decomposing water into H2 and O2 in stoichiometric amounts and with an acceptable activity, still remains a challenge, even when TiO2-based photocatalysts are used in combination with noble-metal co-catalysts. The bottleneck of anatase-type TiO2 remains the water oxidation, that is, the hole transfer reaction from pristine anatase to the aqueous environment. In this work, we report that “grey” (defect engineered) anatase can provide a drastically enhanced lifetime of photogenerated holes, which, in turn, enables an efficient oxidation reaction of water to peroxide via a two-electron pathway. As a result, a Ni@grey anatase TiO2 catalyst can be constructed with an impressive performance in terms of photocatalytic splitting of neutral water into H2 and a stoichiometric amount of H2O2 without the need of any noble metals or sacrificial agents. The finding of long hole lifetimes in grey anatase opens up a wide spectrum of further photocatalytic applications of this material.

Authors with CRIS profile

Ning Liu Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Korrosion und Oberflächentechnik) Shiva Mohajernia Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Korrosion und Oberflächentechnik) Nhat Truong Nguyen Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Korrosion und Oberflächentechnik) Seyedsina Hejazi Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Korrosion und Oberflächentechnik) Fabian Plass Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie I Tadahiro Yokosawa Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung) Andres Osvet Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Erdmann Spiecker Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung) Dirk Michael Guldi Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie I Patrik Schmuki Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Korrosion und Oberflächentechnik)

Additional Organisation(s)

Interdisziplinäres Zentrum, Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy (CENEM) Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung)

Involved external institutions

Leibniz-Institute für Oberflächenmodifizierung e. V. (IOM) / Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Liu, N., Mohajernia, S., Nguyen, N.T., Hejazi, S., Plass, F., Kahnt, A.,... Schmuki, P. (2020). Long-Living Holes in Grey Anatase TiO2 Enable Noble-Metal-Free and Sacrificial-Agent-Free Water Splitting. Chemsuschem. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202001045

MLA:

Liu, Ning, et al. "Long-Living Holes in Grey Anatase TiO2 Enable Noble-Metal-Free and Sacrificial-Agent-Free Water Splitting." Chemsuschem (2020).

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