Photocatalytic Water Splitting and Co2 Reduction with Internal Electric Field Modulation

Abstract

The separation efficiency of the photogenerated carriers was regarded as one of the most critical factors in the photocatalytic reactions. A majority of researchers paid much attention to the photocarriers on the surface since they could affect the surface chemical reaction, however, the procedure for charge separation mainly involved two stages: the generation of photocarriers and move to the surface under the built-in electric field forces. As a result, only the carriers which reached to the surface could participate into the chemical reaction. Recently, studies on the built-in electric field in photocatalysis received much attention and were proposed as the most important factors for the improvement of photocatalytic efficiency since it will affect the separation efficiency of photocarriers during the procedure phase migration. In this review, the research related to photocatalytic renewable fuels production, which was mainly from H2O splitting and CO2 reduction, involved the built-in electric field modulation, which has the potential to be an efficient strategy for promoting the generation rate and selectively of renewable fuels via photocatalysis.

Keywords: Photocatalysis, Renewable fuels, CO2 reduction, H2O splitting, Internal electric field (IEF)