title: Recent progress in oxynitride photocatalysts for visible-light-driven water splitting.
abstract: Photocatalytic water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is a method to directly convert light energy into storable chemical energy, and has received considerable attention for use in large-scale solar energy utilization. Particulate semiconductors are generally used as photocatalysts, and semiconductor properties such as bandgap, band positions, and photocarrier mobility can heavily impact photocatalytic performance. The design of active photocatalysts has been performed with the consideration of such semiconductor properties. Photocatalysts have a catalytic aspect in addition to a semiconductor one. The ability to control surface redox reactions in order to efficiently produce targeted reactants is also important for photocatalysts. Over the past few decades, various photocatalysts for water splitting have been developed, and a recent main concern has been the development of visible-light sensitive photocatalysts for water splitting. This review introduces the study of water-splitting photocatalysts, with a focus on recent progress in visible-light induced overall water splitting on oxynitride photocatalysts. Various strategies for designing efficient photocatalysts for water splitting are also discussed herein.
authors.affiliation: Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takata
authors.affiliation: Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: Chengsi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; Department of Chemical System Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Domen
keywords: cocatalyst; oxynitride; photocatalyst; semiconductor; visible light; water splitting