Semiconductor assisted photocatalysis has attracted a pronounced attention owing to its vital role in environmental remediation. Effective light absorption, particularly in the visible region, and charge separation are the two most important factors affecting a photocatalytic system which is generally hard to be achieved by the bare photocatalysts. The blending of various semiconductor materials for the fabrication of heterojunction enhances the photocatalytic activity and stability by decreasing the rate of combination of electron-hole pairs. This review succinctly outlines the recent progress in the synthesis methods and the photocatalytic performances of semiconductor-semiconductor heterojunctions and semiconductor-carbon heterojunctions for degradation of pollutants like dyes, antibiotics, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, and water splitting. The review ends with a summary and some future perspectives on this fast-emerging area of research.

Photodegradation of organic pollutants using heterojunctions: A review

Enhancing the PEC water splitting performance of BiVO4 co-modifying with NiFeOOH and Co-Pi double layer cocatalysts

Oxygen vacancies engineering in TiO2 homojunction/ZnFe-LDH for enhanced photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Photocatalysis has demonstrated great potentials for both environmental remediation and green energy production. In this study, a simple solvothermal template-free approach was employed for the first time to synthesize phosphorous doped carbon nitride nanobelt (P CN NB). Advanced characterizations, for instance, 13C NMR, 31P NMR, and XPS results indicated that P was substitutionally doped at the corner-carbon of the carbon nitride frameworks. The introduction of P dopants inhibited the polymerization between NH2 groups within P CN NB, enabling the decrease in nanobelt width for the exposure of more active sites. Therefore, the optimized P-CN-NB-2 (derived from 0.2 mM H3PO4) rendered enhanced p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) degradation nearly 66-fold higher than bulk g-C3N4, among the most efficient g-C3N4-based photocatalysts as reported. In addition, the P-CN-NB-1 (derived from 0.02 mM H3PO4) exhibited about 2 times higher H2 evolution rate than CN NB. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were also conducted to provide insights into the mechanism.

Phosphorous doped carbon nitride nanobelts for photodegradation of emerging contaminants and hydrogen evolution

Photoelectrochemical water splitting via consumption of solar energy is considered an alternative approach to address both fossil resource and global warming issues. On the basis of the bottom‐up technique, major strategies have been developed to enrich the complexity of nanostructures by incorporating various functional components to realize outstanding photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for hydrogen evolution, such as high solar‐to‐hydrogen efficiency and long‐term stability. In such a PEC system, each nanomaterial component individually, and more importantly, together with the formed interfaces, contributes to PEC performance elevation. Specifically, the two types of interfaces that have emerged, i.e., the interfaces between photoelectrodes and electrolytes (solid–liquid contact) and the interfaces inside photoelectrodes (solid–solid contact), have both been effectively engineered to facilitate charge separation and transportation and even enhance the antiphotocorrosion properties. A comprehensive understanding, summary, and review of such interface engineering protocols may provide novel and effective approaches for PEC system designing.

Interface Engineering for Modulation of Charge Carrier Behavior in ZnO Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

It is known that heterojunction photoelectrodes can improve light absorption and accelerate the separation of photogenerated carriers in the field of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. However, the key to efficient photoelectrochemical performance is to build heterojunctions with a narrow band gap semiconductor loaded on a wide band gap semiconductor uniformly and densely. Herein, a ZnO/ZnFe2O4 uniform core–shell heterojunction photoelectrode is prepared by a simple ion etching method. Moreover, the chemical reaction process and mechanism are discussed in detail. The ZnO/ZnFe2O4 photoelectrode shows a higher photocurrent density (0.29 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE) compared with that of ZnO (0.17 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE). Furthermore, the PEC performance of ZnO/ZnFe2O4 is optimized by depositing NiOOH; the photocurrent density of ZnO/ZnFe2O4/NiOOH is 0.48 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE. The remarkable PEC performance of ZnO/ZnFe2O4/NiOOH benefits from the following important factors: (i) the uniformity and nanotube structure of the ZnO/ZnFe2O4 heterojunction; (ii) the excellent light harvesting ability; and (iii) the reduced photogenerated electron–hole pair recombination rate. This work provides new insights into designing heterojunction systems for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting.

A ZnO/ZnFe2O4 uniform core–shell heterojunction with a tubular structure modified by NiOOH for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

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A ZnO/ZnFe2O4 uniform core–shell heterojunction with a tubular structure modified by NiOOH for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting