The photocatalytic pure water splitting performance of photocatalysts is still restricted by the low utilization efficiency of photogenerated holes. Recent studies suggest that metal oxide clusters can efficiently abstract holes from a bulk photocatalyst via discrete energy bands. However, the decay dynamics of excited states in such a heterostructure have not been explored. Herein, ultra-small CoOx clusters decorated on ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) are prepared for pure water splitting. Experimental characterization studies confirm that CoOx clusters efficiently capture holes from ZnIn2S4, thus inhibiting charge recombination. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (fs-TAS) reveals that the lifetime of holes trapped by CoOx clusters is prolonged to 911.6 ps, enabling more opportunities to participate in the surface reaction. Moreover, density functional theory calculation suggests that the CoOx cluster is the preferential adsorption site for H2O to boost surface water oxidation. Benefiting from the above factors, the optimized CoOx/ZIS shows improved H2 and H2O2 evolution rates of 404.1 μmol g−1 h−1 and 371.9 μmol g−1 h−1 under visible light irradiation, respectively, which are about ten times higher than that of pure ZIS. The study highlights the significance of efficient hole extraction for improving photocatalytic pure water splitting performance.
Dawei Chen,Chung-Li Dong,Yuqin Zou,Dong Su,Yu-Cheng Huang,Li Tao,Shuo Dou,Shaohua Shen,Shuangyin Wang
Electrocatalytic water splitting is a key technique to produce hydrogen fuels, which can be considered as an efficient strategy to store renewable energy. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that occurs at the anode side requires a four-electron transfer under highly oxidizing conditions. OER has a large overpotential and therefore determines the overall efficiency. Certain electrocatalysts can efficiently help to improve the reaction kinetics. Owing to the high cost of precious metals such as Pt, Ru, and Ir, non-precious metal oxide catalysts have been vigorously investigated under alkaline conditions. Herein, we synthesized novel highly dispersed amorphous CoOxfor the first time in the form of a cluster favorable to enhance the OER activity using a facile method via the air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma. Compared with the pristine biopolymer–cobalt complex, the amorphous CoOx cluster exhibits a much higher current density and a lower overpotential for OER, e.g., the overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and the overpotential of only 350 mV at 300 mA cm−1. The excellent electrocatalytic OER activity was attributed to the unsaturated catalytic sites on the amorphous CoOx cluster. In addition, we studied the reaction mechanism, and it was observed that pure O2 DBD plasma could lead to the evolution of crystalline CoOx; however, the presence of N2 and O2 in DBD plasma could ensure the facile evolution of amorphous CoOx clusters. This study provides a new strategy to design amorphous materials for electrocatalysis and beyond.
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