Issue 6, 2024

A critical review on black phosphorus mediated Z-scheme heterojunctions: properties, synthesis, and mechanistic insights towards solar H2 evolution

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the application of semiconductor-driven photocatalysis has emerged as an emerging tactic addressing the growing sustainable energy demands. A significant advancement in this field involves the utilization of two-dimensional black phosphorus (2D BP) as a potential metal-free photocatalyst that offers distinct advantages, including a tunable band gap (depending on the number of layers), high charge mobility, broad light absorption, substantial surface area, and specific anisotropic structure, which has gathered significant attention. This review initially documented the inherent characteristics, mostly physicochemical, optoelectronic, and catalytic properties, assessing their viability as metal-free photocatalysts. This review also provides an overview of advanced fabrication methods for various dimensional configurations of BP, i.e., three-dimensional (3D) bulk, 2D nanosheets (2D NSs), and zero-dimensional quantum dots (0D QDs). Afterward, various strategies to enhance the stability of BP are also discussed in detail. The study also compiles various developments towards Z-scheme heterostructures and underlying catalytic mechanisms for boosting high photocatalytic H2 evolution activity. Finally, challenges and future prospects in BP research are also discussed, highlighting its possibilities as a versatile material in the post-graphene era. We believe that this review may open up a new avenue for the research community toward sustainable generation of solar fuel using metal-free photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: A critical review on black phosphorus mediated Z-scheme heterojunctions: properties, synthesis, and mechanistic insights towards solar H2 evolution

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
04 Nov 2023
Accepted
23 Jan 2024
First published
07 Feb 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2024,14, 1428-1461

A critical review on black phosphorus mediated Z-scheme heterojunctions: properties, synthesis, and mechanistic insights towards solar H2 evolution

R. K. Giri, S. Mansingh, N. Priyadarshini, J. Panda and K. Parida, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2024, 14, 1428 DOI: 10.1039/D3CY01532G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, 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 commercial 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