Issue 7, 2019

Band structure engineering of boron–oxygen-based materials for efficient charge separation

Abstract

Efficient charge separation and suitable band alignment are critical for developing excellent photocatalysts. Boron–oxygen-based materials have been proven to be significant semiconductor photocatalysts to solve the energy crisis. Our results suggested that the separation of photogenerated carriers can be promoted by tuning the band gap of the materials from indirect to direct by the substitution of cations. Almost 87.8% and 71.5% of the total chloride contents were converted to Cl anions after 20 minutes of UV-Vis light illumination for the indirect-band-gap material KBBO and the direct-band-gap material NBBO for 2,4-DCP degradation, respectively. The dechlorination efficiency of KBBO was approximately 5.3 times that of the commercial P25 TiO2 catalyst. The increased activity could be ascribed to the different locations of the photoinduced charges, making the charges have a long-term effect on the contaminants. By the KPFM method, we concluded that the materials with larger surface potential changes would behave higher photocatalytic activity. This contribution can provide a new approach to optimize the boron–oxygen-based materials for designing efficient photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Band structure engineering of boron–oxygen-based materials for efficient charge separation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
01 Feb 2019
Accepted
29 Apr 2019
First published
06 May 2019

Mater. Chem. Front., 2019,3, 1440-1448

Band structure engineering of boron–oxygen-based materials for efficient charge separation

X. Fan, K. Zhong, Y. Zhang, J. Yin and Y. Zhai, Mater. Chem. Front., 2019, 3, 1440 DOI: 10.1039/C9QM00072K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements