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Published on: August 23, 2012
Fermi Level Pinning in Concentrated Light-Induced Band Edge Tuning Maximizes Photocatalytic Solar-to-Hydrogen
Biao Wang1, Yiwei Fu1, Chunyang Zhang1
1International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Here, we demonstrate a concentrated light-induced band edge tuning effect in photocatalytic hydrogen production. This band movement along with Femi level pinning leads to two distinct catalytic behaviors upon irradiation flux increase. Specifically, the concentration of the light promotes more long-lived carriers bound to the surface electronic states, progressively boosting energy conversion efficiency to a maximum value. Afterward, efficiency diminishes gradually due to poor carrier transfer. This work offers critical insights into efficient and economical photocatalytic hydrogen production.

