g-C3N4/ITO/Co-BiVO4 Z-scheme composite for solar overall water splitting

The rate determining step of Z-scheme overall water splitting system is usually considered to be the charge carriers' separation and transfer, which occurs between the hydrogen evolution photocatalyst (HEP) and the oxygen evolution photocatalyst (OEP). In this work, g-C3N4/ITO/Co-BiVO4 Z-scheme composite in which g-C3N4 as HEP, Co doped BiVO4 as OEP and ITO nanoparticles as conductive mediator is designed and fabricated. Without using any sacrificial agents, the g-C3N4/ITO/Co-BiVO4 composite exhibits 4 times higher than the gC(3)N(4)/Co-BiVO4, with the H-2 and O-2 evolution rate of 95.41 and 40.23 mu mol g(- 1)h(-1) under full arc irradiation. The increase in photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the efficient carriers' separation and transport induced by solid-state mediator ITO nanoparticles. In this work, a novel insight into rationally constructing effective all-solid-state Z-scheme system for overall water splitting will be given.

Automated summary

The study presents the design and fabrication of g-C3N4/ITO/Co-BiVO4 composite as a Z-scheme water splitting system. The photocatalytic activity is enhanced by the solid-state mediator ITO nanoparticles. Under full arc irradiation, the composite exhibits 4 times higher evolution rates of H2 and O2 compared to gC(3)N(4)/Co-BiVO4.