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Photocatalytic transition-metal-oxides-based p–n heterojunction materials: synthesis, sustainable energy and environmental applications, and perspectives

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Abstract

In recent years, photocatalysis has gained particular attention due to its crucial potential applications in addressing many essential energy and environmental challenges. Considerable efforts have been devoted to developing photocatalysts to understand the fundamental processes and enhance photocatalytic efficiencies. The rate of photoinduced e−–h+ reassembly is one of the difficulties encountered in semiconductor photocatalysis. Various alternative photosystems were designed to overcome this problem and thereby improve the efficiency of the heterojunction photocatalyst. Among the explored methods, the charge carrier separation using a built-in electric field attracts considerable attention as a new concept. The present review highlights the development of p–n heterojunctions to overcome the existing challenges in rigorously explored type-I, II, and III heterojunctions. Herein, reports on widely explored TiO2, ZnO, and various other transition metal oxides based p–n heterojunctions are extensively deliberated. This review pinpoints the benefits of constructing p–n junctions, including their impact on optical absorption, physical, and chemical properties over other n–n and p–p heterojunctions. The mechanistic route followed to construct effective p–n heterojunction and practical work carried out by generated internal electric field in isolating the charge carriers is also highlighted. Transition-metal-oxides based p–n heterojunction shows promising practical applications in various fields, including H2 evolution, CO2 reduction, overall water splitting, photo-reforming, and photodegradation of harmful pollutants. The various challenges and future perspectives for developing metal oxides-based p–n heterojunction materials are also summarized.

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reproduced with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084230607591) [74]

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reproduced with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084251359809) [82]

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reproduced with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084280352949) [95]; d schematic illustration for the fabrication of Co3O4/ZnO@ZnS–x heterojunction, reprinted with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084640693230) [96]

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reproduced with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084680520168) [147]; c and d Total yield of CH4 production after 8 h of visible-light-driven CO2 photoreduction over the as-developed samples, reprinted with permission from Elsevier (license No. 5084681231992) [148]

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Abbreviations

CB:

Conduction band

DFT:

Density functional theory

e‒ :

Electron

EHP:

Electron hole pairs

EDX:

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

E f :

Fermi level

h+ :

Holes

∙OH:

Hydroxyl radical

MB:

Methylene blue

NIR:

Near infra-red

PS:

Photocatalytic semiconductor

PL:

Photoluminescence

RhB:

Rhodamine B dye

∙O2 ‒ :

Superoxide radicals

SPS:

Surface photovoltage spectrum

UV-DRS:

UV–Vis diffuse reflectance

VB:

Valence band

ɸ:

Work function

XRD:

X-Ray diffraction

XPS:

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Quyet Van Le was supported by Brain Pool Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (grant number 2020H1D3A1A04081409).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Advanced Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shoolini University, Solan, 173229, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Vatika Soni, Pardeep Singh & Pankaj Raizada

  2. Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P. O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Aftab Aslam Parwaz Khan

  3. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P. O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Aftab Aslam Parwaz Khan

  4. Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal, 462026, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Arachana Singh

  5. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan, 173 234, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Ashok Kumar Nadda

  6. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

  7. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, 145, Anam-ro Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, South Korea

    Quyet Van Le

  8. Biology Faculty, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus

    Stanislav Rizevsky

  9. Faculty of Biotechnology, Binh Duong University, Thu Dau Mot, Vietnam

    Stanislav Rizevsky & Van-Huy Nguyen

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  1. Vatika Soni
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  7. Quyet Van Le
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Soni, V., Singh, P., Khan, A.A.P. et al. Photocatalytic transition-metal-oxides-based p–n heterojunction materials: synthesis, sustainable energy and environmental applications, and perspectives. J Nanostruct Chem 13, 129–166 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40097-021-00462-1

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