title: Solid Solution Photocatalyst with Spontaneous Polarization Exhibiting Low Recombination Toward Efficient CO2 Photoreduction.
abstract: Decreasing the recombination of photogenerated carriers is a major challenge for efficiently converting solar energy into chemical energy by photocatalysis. Here, we have demonstrated that growth of a polar GaN:ZnO solid solution single crystal along its polarization axis is beneficial to efficient separation of photogenerated carriers, owing to the periodic potential barriers and wells generated from the periodically positive and negative atom arrangements in crystal structure. Local charge imbalance caused by replacing Ga(3+) with Zn(2+) leads to a polarization vector in the {0 0 0 1} planes of GaN:ZnO solid solution, thus forming a 1 D electron transport path along [2 1‾  1‾  0] in the {0 0 0 1} planes of GaN:ZnO solid solution to decrease recombination. Shorting the hole-transport distance by synthesizing porous nanoplates can further decrease recombination under the polarization field and improve the performance of polar photocatalyst in photoreduction of CO2 into CH4 .
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Physics, Nanjing University, No. 22, Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, No. 22, Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, No. 22, Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, P.R. China. yscfei@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Physics, Nanjing University, No. 22, Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, P.R. China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, No. 22, Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D005708:Gallium / Q000737:chemistry; D008697:Methane / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D012996:Solutions; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C473348:gallium nitride; D005708:Gallium; D008697:Methane; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: carbon dioxide; charge transport; photocatalysis; polarization; solid solution