Open AccessFast interfacial charge transfer in α-Fe2O3−δCδ/FeVO4−x+δCx−δ@C bulk heterojunctions with controllable phase content
Author(s) -
Chengcheng Zhao,
Guoqiang Tan,
Wei Yang,
Chen Xu,
Ting Liu,
Yuning Su,
Huijun Ren,
Ao Xia
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep38603
Subject(s) - heterojunction , charge (physics) , phase (matter) , materials science , transfer (computing) , content (measure theory) , chemistry , optoelectronics , computer science , physics , mathematics , organic chemistry , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , parallel computing
The novelties in this paper are embodied in the fast interfacial charge transfer in α-Fe 2 O 3−δ C δ /FeVO 4−x+δ C x−δ @C bulk heterojunctions with controllable phase compositions. The carbon source-glucose plays an important role as the connecting bridge between the micelles in the solution, forming interfacial C-O, C-O-Fe and O-Fe-C bonds through dehydration and polymerization reactions. Then the extra VO 3 − around the FeVO 4 colloidal particles can react with unstable Fe(OH) 3 , resulting the phase transformation from α-Fe 2 O 3 (47.99–7.16%) into FeVO 4 (52.01–92.84%), promoting photocarriers’ generation capacities. After final carbonization, a part of C atoms enter into lattices of α-Fe 2 O 3 and FeVO 4 , forming impurity levels and oxygen vacancies to increase effective light absorptions. Another part of C sources turn into interfacial carbon layers to bring fast charge transfer by decreasing the charge transition resistance (from 53.15 kΩ into 8.29 kΩ) and the surface recombination rate (from 64.07% into 7.59%). The results show that the bulk heterojunction with 90.29% FeVO 4 and 9.71% α-Fe 2 O 3 shows ideal light absorption, carriers’ transfer efficiency and available photocatalytic property. In general, the synergistic effect of optimized heterojunction structure, carbon replacing and the interface carbon layers are critical to develop great potential in stable and recoverable use.