Visible light driven type II heterostructures and their enhanced photocatalysis properties: a review

Considerable efforts have been devoted to enhancing the photocatalytic activity and solar energy utilization of photocatalysts. The fabrication of type II heterostructures plays an important role in photocatalysts modification and has been extensively studied. In this review, we briefly trace the application of type II heterostructured semiconductors in the area of environmental remediation and water splitting, summarize major fabrication methods, describe some of the progress and resulting achievements, and discuss the future prospects. The scope of this review covers a variety of type II heterostructures, focusing particularly on TiO2 and ZnO based visible light driven type II 0D and 1D heterostructured photocatalysts. Some other low dimensional nanomaterials which have shown high-performance photocatalysis are also presented. We expect this review to provide a guideline for readers to gain a clear picture of fabrication and application of type II heterostructures.