title: The plausible role of carbonate in photo-catalytic water oxidation processes.
abstract: DFT calculations point out that the photo-oxidation of water on GaN is energetically considerably facilitated by adsorbed carbonate. As the redox potential of the couple CO3(˙-)/CO3(2-) is considerably lower than that of the couple OH˙/OH(-) but still enables the oxidation of water it is suggested that carbonate should be considered as a catalyst/co-catalyst in a variety of catalytic/photo-catalytic/electro-catalytic oxidation processes.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Sciences Department, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel. hayak@ariel.ac.il.
authors.forename: Haya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kornweitz
authors.affiliation: Chemical Sciences Department, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel. hayak@ariel.ac.il and Chemistry Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meyerstein