Cobalt selenide: a versatile cocatalyst for photocatalytic water oxidation with visible light

Abstract

Cobalt selenide has been developed as an effective cocatalyst to decorate visible light photocatalysts, including WO₃, BiVO₄ and g-C₃N₄, establishing intense surface contact with substrates for the photocatalytic water oxidation reaction. Compared with CoO_x and CoS_x, CoSe₂ is superior for improving the photocatalytic water oxidation activity due to the lower anionic electronegativity, which leads to dense adhesion and enables fast interfacial charge transfer for the water oxidation reaction.