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Prolonged lifetime and enhanced separation of photogenerated charges of nanosized α-Fe2O3 by coupling SnO2 for efficient visible-light photocatalysis to convert CO2 and degrade acetaldehyde

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Abstract

To develop efficient visible-light photocatalysis on α-Fe2O3, it is highly desirable to promote visible-light-excited high-energy-level electron transfer to a proper energy platform thermodynamically. Herein, based on the transient-state surface photovoltage responses and the atmosphere-controlled steady-state surface photovoltage spectra, it is demonstrated that the lifetime and separation of photogenerated charges of nanosized α-Fe2O3 are increased after coupling a proper amount of nanocrystalline SnO2. This naturally leads to greatly improved photocatalytic activities for CO2 reduction and acetaldehyde degradation. It is suggested that the enhanced charge separation results from the electron transfer from α-Fe2O3 to SnO2, which acts as a proper energy platform. Based on the photocurrent action spectra, it is confirmed that the coupled SnO2 exhibits longer visible-light threshold wavelength (~590 nm) compared with the coupled TiO2 (~550 nm), indicating that the energy platform introduced by SnO2 would accept more photogenerated electrons from α-Fe2O3. Moreover, electrochemical reduction experiments proved that the coupled SnO2 possesses better catalytic ability for reducing CO2 and O2. These are well responsible for the much efficient photocatalysis on SnO2-coupled α-Fe2O3.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1401245 and 21501052), the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB660814), the Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 213011A), Special Funding for Postdoctoral of Heilongjiang Province (No. LBHTZ06019) and the Science Foundation for Excellent Youth of Harbin City of China (No. 2014RFYXJ002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Materials Chemistry (Heilongjiang University), Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, International Joint Research Center for Catalytic Technology, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, China

    Zhijun Li, Peng Luan, Xuliang Zhang, Yang Qu, Fazal Raziq, Jinshuang Wang & Liqiang Jing

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  1. Zhijun Li
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  2. Peng Luan
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  3. Xuliang Zhang
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  4. Yang Qu
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  7. Liqiang Jing
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Correspondence to Yang Qu or Liqiang Jing.

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Prolonged lifetime and enhanced separation of photogenerated charges of nanosized α-Fe2O3 by coupling SnO2 for efficient visible-light photocatalysis to convert CO2 and degrade acetaldehyde

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Li, Z., Luan, P., Zhang, X. et al. Prolonged lifetime and enhanced separation of photogenerated charges of nanosized α-Fe2O3 by coupling SnO2 for efficient visible-light photocatalysis to convert CO2 and degrade acetaldehyde. Nano Res. 10, 2321–2331 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1427-4

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