Passivation of the surface imperfection of TiO₂ by using ZIF-8 for efficient carrier separation/transfer

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers a promising chance for energy generation on a global scale. TiO₂ is a widely used photoanode material due to its superior properties and stability. However, the PEC efficiency of TiO₂ is usually impeded by the fast recombination of photo-generated electron/hole pairs and the poor charge transfer ability that could be improved by band alignment and imperfection passivation, respectively. Herein, we first report that ZIF-8 is an efficient imperfection passivating layer which acts as a bifunctional cocatalyst for transferring/separating electron/hole pairs for improving the photo/photoelectrochemical performance. This work provides a new insight to investigate the charge interaction mechanism between the interface of TiO₂ and ZIF-8.