Bi(1-x)La(x)CuSeO as New Tunable Full Solar Light Active Photocatalysts.
Photocatalysis is attracting enormous interest driven by the great promise of addressing current energy and environmental crises by converting solar light directly into chemical energy. However, efficiently harvesting solar energy for photocatalysis remains a pressing challenge, and the charge kinetics and mechanism of the photocatalytic process is far from being well understood. Here we report a new full solar spectrum driven photocatalyst in the system of a layered oxyselenide BiCuSeO with good photocatalytic activity for degradation of organic pollutants and chemical stability under light irradiation, and the photocatalytic performance of BiCuSeO can be further improved by band gap engineering with introduction of La. Our measurements and density-functional-theory calculations reveal that the effective mass and mobility of the carriers in BiCuSeO can be tuned by the La-doping, which are responsible for the tunable photocatalytic activity. Our findings may offer new perspectives for understanding the mechanism of photocatalysis through modulating the charge mobility and the effective mass of carriers and provide a guidance for designing efficient photocatalyts.
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.|High-Tech Institute of Xi'an, Xi'an, Shanxi 710025, People's Republic of China.
Huanchun
H
Wang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Shun
S
Li
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.|School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Yaochun
Y
Liu
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Jinxuan
J
Ding
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Yuan-Hua
YH
Lin
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Haomin
H
Xu
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Ben
B
Xu
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Ce-Wen
CW
Nan