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Engineering Migration Pathway for Effective Separation of Photogenerated Carriers on Multicomponent Heterojunctions Coated with Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon
Author(s) -
Zhuang Yuan,
Sun Liming,
Zeng Suyuan,
Zhan Wenwen,
Wang XiaoJun,
Zhao Yanli,
Han Xiguang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201902922
Subject(s) - heterojunction , photocatalysis , calcination , materials science , nitrogen , carbon fibers , chemical engineering , doping , nanotechnology , catalysis , chemistry , composite number , composite material , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , engineering
Abstract Multicomponent NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 photocatalysts coated with nitrogen‐doped carbon (N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 ) for efficient H 2 production were fabricated by directly pyrolyzing NH 2 ‐MIL‐125(Ni/Ti) metal–organic framework microrods. Owing to the synergistic effect of the N‐doped carbon coating layer and multicomponent heterojunctions, the H 2 production rate of N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 was even higher than that of its Pt‐containing counterpart (Pt/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 ). N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 and N‐C/NiTiO 3 /R‐TiO 2 as control photocatalysts were also prepared by simply adjusting the calcination temperature of NH 2 ‐MIL‐125(Ni/Ti) in air atmosphere. The H 2 production rate followed the order of N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 >N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 >N‐C/NiTiO 3 >R‐TiO 2 , which indicates that the multicomponent heterojunction plays a key role in photocatalytic H 2 generation. The mechanism for the influence of the multicomponent heterojunction on photocatalytic activity was investigated in combination with molecular simulations, which showed that N‐C/NiTiO 3 /A‐TiO 2 /R‐TiO 2 has a so‐called double type II heterojunction providing a perfect step‐by‐step migration pathway for effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. This work presents a simple and effective method for synthesizing efficient multicomponent photocatalysts.