Visible-light-responding BiYWO6 solid solution for stoichiometric photocatalytic water splitting

BiYWO6 (BYW) oxide solid solution was found to act as a photocatalyst for overall water splitting under visible light when loading cocatalysts. The band gap of BYW was 2.71 eV, and it absorbed visible light up to 470 nm. BYW with RuO2 has the best activity compared to other cocatalysts such as Cr2O3-Pt, Pt, and Au. Under irradiation of lambda > 420 nm light, the amounts of the produced hydrogen and oxygen were about 12.3 and 5.6 mu mol in 3 h, respectively. This study indicated that the formation of solid solution was the feasible method to adjust the conduction band and valence band to obtain a visible-light-driven photocatalyst.