Oxide-based Visible Light Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting: Nanodimensional and Heterointerface Design of Photocatalysts

Solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has drawn great interest due to its significant role in environmentally clean technology. Most studied oxide semiconductors with hybrid structure have been envisaged to improve photoactivity performance. Unfortunately, they are inhibited by several factors, such as (i) large energy band gap which only possesses photoactivity within the UV region, (ii) competitive redox reaction as the result of polycrystalline orientation, and (iii) charge separation efficiency of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. To overcome the above-mentioned factors, materials with different functionalities into nanostructures and heterointerfaces were fabricated to engineer the interface properties, which affect the contact energy gap and the concentration of defects of materials.