研究実績の概要 |
Hydrogen (H2) is a zero carbon emission fuel, and is forecast to be an ideal source of energy in the future. Although H2 can be produced from direct splitting of water using semiconductor photocatalysts under solar light irradiation, the present energy conversion efficiency is too low for the technology to be economically sound. The main barriers are the rapid charge recombination as well as no absorption of traditional semiconductors such as TiO2 in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) regions. Recently, two dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) has attracted great interest, because it has adjustable bandgap from ~0.3 eV for bulk to ~2.1 eV for monolayer. The above bandgap properties are promising because of broad solar light absorption from UV to NIR. Herein, several BP-based systems were designed and used for efficient photocatalytic H2 production under visible and NIR light irradiation. 1) Ternary BP sensitized Au/LTO nanostructure was synthesized firstly and used as an efficient and stable visible- and NIR-light-driven photocatalyst for H2 production. 2) Binary nanohybrid (BP/CN) composed of BP nanoflake and C3N4 nanosheet was facilely obtained and firstly used as a metal-free photocatalyst for H2 evolution in the presence of methanol as a hole quencher. 3) 2D BP nanoflakes can be worked as a broad spectrum photocatalyst, which can harness visible and NIR light for photocatalytic H2 evolution. 4) By using BP and WS2, we developed a noble metal-free photocatalytic H2 production system that responds to a wide spectrum of solar light, particularly in the NIR region.
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