Synthesis of p-Co₃O₄/n-TiO₂ Nanoparticles for Overall Water Splitting under Visible Light Irradiation.
p-Co₃O₄/n-TiO₂ nanoparticles (~400 nm) for photocatalysis were prepared via carbon assisted method and sol-gel method in this work. The paper also studied the application of visible light illuminated p-Co₃O₄/n-TiO₂ nanocomposites cocatalyst to the overall pure water splitting into H₂ and O₂. In addition, the H₂ evolution rate of the p-Co₃O₄/n-TiO₂ nanocomposites is 25% higher than that of the pure Co₃O₄ nanoparticles. Besides, according to the results of the characterizations, the scheme of visible light photocatalytic water splitting is proposed, the Co₃O₄ of the nanocomposites is excited by visible light, and the photo-generated electrons and holes existing on the conduction band of Co₃O₄ and valence band of TiO₂ have endowed the photocatalytic evolution of H₂ and O₂ with higher efficiency. The optimal evolution rate of H₂ and O₂ is 8.16 μmol/h·g and 4.0 μmol/h·g, respectively.
Key Laboratory of Instrumentation Science and Dynamic Measurement of Ministry of Education, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China. zhangq0902@163.com.|MicroNano System Research Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of Ministry of Education and Shanxi Province & College of Information Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. zhangq0902@163.com.
Qiang
Q
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Instrumentation Science and Dynamic Measurement of Ministry of Education, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China. zhenyinhai0351@gmail.com.
Zhenyin
Z
Hai
MicroNano System Research Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of Ministry of Education and Shanxi Province & College of Information Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. jianaoqun@tyut.edu.cn.
Aoqun
A
Jian
School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China. xuhongyan@foxmail.com.
Hongyan
H
Xu
Key Laboratory of Instrumentation Science and Dynamic Measurement of Ministry of Education, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China. xuechenyang@nuc.edu.cn.
Chenyang
C
Xue
MicroNano System Research Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of Ministry of Education and Shanxi Province & College of Information Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. sangshengbo@tyut.edu.cn.
Shengbo
S
Sang
nanocomposites; overall water splitting; photocatalysis; visible light