Band-Gap and Charge Transfer Engineering in Red Phosphorus-Based Composites for Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven H₂...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Photocatalysis
• Surface Chemistry

Background:

• Low photogenerated carrier lifetime limits elemental photocatalyst performance.
• Amorphous red phosphorus (RP) is a promising but underperforming photocatalyst.
• Surface modification is crucial for enhancing photocatalytic efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a facile strategy for modifying amorphous red phosphorus (RP).
• To enhance the charge carrier separation and photocatalytic activity of RP.
• To investigate the effect of oxygen covalent functionalization and heterojunction construction on RP.

Main Methods:

• One-step synthesis of oxygen-functionalized RP and CdCO3 composites (nCdCO3/SO-RP).
• Characterization of material properties and photocatalytic performance.
• Experimental and theoretical investigations of carrier dynamics and charge transfer.

Main Results:

• The nCdCO3/SO-RP composites showed significantly enhanced visible-light-driven H2 evolution (up to 516.3 μmol g-1 h), 17.6 times higher than pristine RP.
• Oxygen covalent functionalization prolonged carrier lifetime and shifted the conduction band potential negatively.
• The composites demonstrated good stability and reusability over three cycles.

Conclusions:

• Surface oxygen functionalization and heterojunction construction effectively improve RP's photocatalytic activity.
• The developed strategy offers a pathway to enhance elemental photocatalysts by atomic structure modification.
• This work provides insights into optimizing photocatalysts for water splitting and other applications.