Construction of S-scheme heterojunction catalytic nanoreactor for boosted photothermal-assisted photocatalytic H2 production

This Perspective provides an overview of the contributions of materials science to a sustainable energy future, and discusses possible regulatory paths to support this transition.

When used as a photocatalyst, titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) absorbs only ultraviolet light, and several approaches, including the use of dopants such as nitrogen, have been taken to narrow the band gap of TiO(2). We demonstrated a conceptually different approach to enhancing solar absorption by introducing disorder in the surface layers of nanophase TiO(2) through hydrogenation. We showed that disorder-engineered TiO(2) nanocrystals exhibit substantial solar-driven photocatalytic activities, including the photo-oxidation of organic molecules in water and the production of hydrogen with the use of a sacrificial reagent.