Nanoclay-Modulated Interfacial Chemical Bond and Internal Electric Field at the Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 p-n Junction for Efficient Charge Separation.
Shilin ZhangQingjie WangPeng ZhangJie WangYue LiChang LuMuhammad Tariq SarwarXiongbo DongQihang ZhaoAidong TangLiangjie FuHuaming YangPublished in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) (2023)
To achieve a high separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers in semiconductors, constructing high-quality heterogeneous interfaces as charge flow highways is critical and challenging. This study successfully demonstrates an interfacial chemical bond and internal electric field (IEF) simultaneously modulated 0D/0D/1D-Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 /sepiolite composite catalyst by exploiting sepiolite surface-interfacial interactions to adjust the Co 2+ /Co 3+ ratio at the Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 heterointerface. In situ irradiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the interfacial Co 2+ OTi bond (compared to the Co 3+ OTi bond) plays a major role as an atomic-level charge transport channel at the p-n junction. Co 2+ /Co 3+ ratio increase also enhances the IEF intensity. Therefore, the enhanced IEF cooperates with the interfacial Co 2+ OTi bond to enhance the photoelectron separation and migration efficiency. A coupled photocatalysis-peroxymonosulfate activation system is used to evaluate the catalytic activity of Co 3 O 4 /TiO 2 /sepiolite. Furthermore, this work demonstrates how efficiently separated photoelectrons facilitate the synergy between photocatalysis and peroxymonosulfate activation to achieve deep pollutant degradation and reduce its ecotoxicity. This study presents a new strategy for constructing high-quality heterogeneous interfaces by consciously modulating interfacial chemical bonds and IEF, and the strategy is expected to extend to this class of spinel-structured semiconductors.
Keyphrases
- electron transfer
- density functional theory
- ionic liquid
- visible light
- molecular dynamics simulations
- perovskite solar cells
- molecular dynamics
- quantum dots
- high resolution
- molecular docking
- liquid chromatography
- transition metal
- magnetic resonance
- single molecule
- magnetic resonance imaging
- dna methylation
- solid state
- high intensity
- monte carlo
- signaling pathway
- reduced graphene oxide
- single cell