Issue 7, 2020

Photocatalytic hydrogen generation on low-bandgap black zirconia (ZrO2) produced by high-pressure torsion

Abstract

Photocatalysis on semiconductors using solar energy sources provides a clean technology to produce hydrogen from water splitting. Although zirconia (ZrO2) is a semiconductor oxide, it is not generally considered as a photocatalyst owing to its poor light absorbance and wide bandgap (over 5 eV). In this study, black ZrO2 with a large concentration of lattice defects such as oxygen vacancies, dislocations and nanograin boundaries is stabilized by high-pressure torsion (HPT) straining. The black ZrO2, which experiences monoclinic–tetragonal phase transformations during the HPT process, shows large light absorption, a small bandgap, reduced conduction band energy and high photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution due the presence of oxygen vacancies. These results confirm that the introduction of strain-induced oxygen vacancies is a potential method to produce low-bandgap photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Photocatalytic hydrogen generation on low-bandgap black zirconia (ZrO2) produced by high-pressure torsion

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Oct 2019
Accepted
21 Jan 2020
First published
24 Jan 2020

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020,8, 3643-3650

Photocatalytic hydrogen generation on low-bandgap black zirconia (ZrO2) produced by high-pressure torsion

Q. Wang, K. Edalati, Y. Koganemaru, S. Nakamura, M. Watanabe, T. Ishihara and Z. Horita, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 3643 DOI: 10.1039/C9TA11839J

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