Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production on Defective and Strained Black Bismuth (III) Oxide

Abstract

Bismuth (III) oxide (Bi2O3) has been highly studied as a photocatalyst for green hydrogen production due to its low band gap, yet its efficiency requires enhancement. This study synthesizes a defective and strained black Bi2O3 by severe straining under high pressure, via a high-pressure torsion method, to improve its photocatalytic hydrogen production. The material rich in oxygen vacancies exhibits a ten-fold improvement in water splitting with excellent cycling stability. Such improvement is due to improved light absorption, narrowing band gap and reduced irradiative electron-hole recombination. Moreover, the valence band bottom energy positively increases by straining leading to a high overpotential for hydrogen production. This research highlights the potential of vacancies and lattice strain in developing dopant-free active catalysts for water splitting.

References in corpus (1)

• Understanding high photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 high-pressure columbite phase by experiments and first-principles calculations

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Severe Plastic Deformation of Ceramics by High-Pressure Torsion: Review of Principles and Applications
• High-entropy oxide photocatalysts for green ammonia synthesis from nitrogen fixation in water