InOOH-mediated intergrown heterojunctions for enhanced photocatalytic Performance: Assembly and interfacial charge carrier transferring

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Vol. 442; p. 136355
• Main Authors: Nekouei, Farzin, Wen, Xiaoming, Zheng, Zhong, Sun, Qingbo, Lu, Teng, Orton, Henry, Kremer, Felipe, Nekouei, Shahram, Yuan, Tongwei, Abdelkader, Elwy H., Liu, Borui, Tricoli, Antonio, Otting, Gottfried, Liu, Zongwen, Frankcombe, Terry, Liu, Yun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 15-08-2022
• Subjects: In(OH)3/InOOH; InOOH/In2O3; Interfacial charge transfer; Intergrown heterojunction photocatalysts; Perfluorooctanoic acid; InOOH/In2O3; In(OH)3/InOOH; Perfluorooctanoic acid; Intergrown heterojunction photocatalysts; Interfacial charge transfer
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.136355

•First timescrutinises InOOH-based intergrown heterojunctions fabrications.•InOOH/In2O3 intergrown photocatalysts show highly efficient PFOA decomposition.•Atomic-level interfacial sites build intense interaction between InOOH and In2O3.•Extra peak in visible region due to strong interaction between InOOH and In2O3.•Decreased PL lifetime indicating faster charge transfer and extra holes generation.
Heterojunction photocatalysts with appropriate band structures and abundant interfacial sites present promising photocatalytic performance. Research in this field has generally been focusing on incorporating dissimilar materials to prepare heterojunctions. Few studies show how to construct intergrown heterojunctions that structurally, the interfacial region is narrowed down to atomic scale, facilitating charge carrier transferring and minimising potentially unfavoured band bending. This work first reports the intergrowth between In(OH)3, InOOH and In2O3 that creates an intergrown InOOH/In2O3 and In(OH)3/InOOH heterojunction structures to greatly enhance photocatalytic effect for highly efficient decomposition of perfluorooctanoic acid. The experimental and theoretical investigation indicate that band structure matching is essential for heterojunction photocatalysts. Fast interfacial charge carrier transferring offers additional charge carriers but does not always occur in the heterojunctions where other effects may play the dominated role in interfacial region. We believe that this comprehensive understanding of intergrown heterojunctions would benefit the design and application of high performance photocatalysts.