Bipolar charge collecting structure enables overall water splitting on ferroelectric photocatalysts

Abstract

Ferroelectrics are considered excellent photocatalytic candidates for solar fuel production because of the unidirectional charge separation and above-gap photovoltage. Nevertheless, the performance of ferroelectric photocatalysts is often moderate. A few studies showed that these types of photocatalysts could achieve overall water splitting. This paper proposes an approach to fabricating interfacial charge-collecting nanostructures on positive and negative domains of ferroelectric, enabling water splitting in ferroelectric photocatalysts. The present study observes efficient accumulations of photogenerated electrons and holes within their thermalization length (~50 nm) around Au nanoparticles located in the positive and negative domains of a BaTiO₃ single crystal. Photocatalytic overall water splitting is observed on a ferroelectric BaTiO₃ single crystal after assembling oxidation and reduction cocatalysts on the positively and negatively charged Au nanoparticles, respectively. The fabrication of bipolar charge-collecting structures on ferroelectrics to achieve overall water splitting offers a way to utilize the energetic photogenerated charges in solar energy conversion.

While ferroelectric materials are promising candidates for solar water splitting, most examples show poor activities. Here, authors prepare charge-collecting nanostructures on the positive and negative domains of BaTiO₃ and demonstrate photocatalytic overall water splitting.